D of E and Plonk!

After the last time, making loads of teddies as part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme (see here), I swore I was not getting involved again. I got my arm twisted, a new participant, who is a sweetie, and this time I am showing her how to make soft toys (but definitely no knitted teddies!) She has done a (very) little sewing, so we are starting off simple and going from there. I thought we would start with this -

 I found it on the Net here, - and I made the bunny for next week.

The girl's brothers and sisters will have fun playing with the puppets, and I can pop an Easter egg inside and send them to my granddaughters for Easter.

I have also been busy bottling. Now and again I take a notion to make wine. I fill a demijohn and then forget about it. I found two very dusty demijohns the other day and thought I would see how they were doing. One was made from herb tea bags and was a light, tasty wine. The other one had no label, but had a kick like a mule! I think it is elderberry, but who cares? It tastes good - HIC!!
Till next time.
tich

Flakes and Floods

I have been working on the Frosty Flakes BOM from 'As Sweet As Cinnamon' that I talked about in my last post. I have completed sewing the hexagons together and appliqueing them onto a white background. 

 I used two green materials and three red.

I forgot to photograph the self coloured red, but you can see it below.

 

I do not like the embroidery on the block below. The stitches are too big, making it look crude. I am going to redo this block. This is a very relaxing BOM, which I sit down at night and do whilst watching the TV.

I have been appalled, watching pictures on TV of the floods in Australia. I find it difficult to contemplate that amount of water, travelling at such speeds. I feel very guilty about complaining when the waves come over onto our road. 

Toni from 'Make It Perfect' has compiled a master list of all the blogs in Blogland, holding auctions to help the victims of this awful disaster. Go here to see how you can help.
Thankful ThoughtsAs you have probably guessed by now, I just love where I live. I leave you with a picture of a recent sunset. It doesn't get much better than this. 

Till next time.tich

New BOM and Catch Up (Photo Heavy)

Well I tried very hard, but I couldn't resist the free BOM on Dawn Hay's blog, 'As Sweet As Cinnamon'. I know the BOM is finished, and the blocks were supposed to be sewn for Christmas, but I have got eleven months to do it, right? I am always behind, 'like the coo's tail!' I love hexagons, especially small ones, and I really enjoy tacking the papers to the material. It is so relaxing. This time, however, I used a different technique. I used a glue stick, to stick the paper to the material and then tiny dots of Roxanne's Glue Baste It, to turn down the material. I did not put any Baste It glue on the paper, only glued the material to itself. The hexagons are made into florettes, these  are appliqued to a background fabric and then embroidered. As I knew I would be using a blue washable pen to mark the embroidery design, and the whole thing would have to be washed, I had no reservations about using the glue. I will give you updates, as I progress.


Because I left the post about the giveaway subscription up for so long, to give everybody a chance at winning, I did not show you the pictures of our snow in December. I know some of you will laugh, as it is not very deep, but for our island it lasted way longer than usual. The road men did a wonderful job keeping the roads clear, and one morning I saw the lorry pass just after 6am, so 'Well Done!' to them. Mr D and I went a walk one beautiful day and here are some of the pics.

The beginnings of a beautiful sunrise.

Our house from the side of the bay. There are two walls and a road between us and the front of the bay, so you can't see the snow.

The landscape.

The edges of the bay have frozen, and if it was not tidal, the whole bay would have been frozen over!

That is our house on the left of the picture with the frozen bay in the foreground.

Walking on the headland.

Where the bay met the land. The tide is pulling the ice away. Now I know how the Titanic felt!!

When we got to the top of the headland we saw...

I tried to get better pictures, but the seals kept on putting their heads down, as I clicked!

Hope you enjoyed our snow!!

Till next time.

tich

Free Patterns and BOMs

As a pay back for all the good luck I am having, I thought I would list some blogs that have some free patterns or BOMs.

One of my favourite blogs for applique is Erin Russek's One Piece at a Time It is such a good site, with loads of tutorials and videos on how Erin does her beautiful work. She has the patterns for her Floribunda BOM up until tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice . I tried to tell you about this before, but I managed to delete the post! The BOM is absolutely gorgeous, so go over and have a look.

Elly told me about the next site. The Temecula Quilt Co are giving patterns for the Twelve Days of Christmas, one each day. They are now on Day Ten. the patterns were inspired loosely on a quilt from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

At All People Quilt, you can sign up for a weekly newsletter, and get loads of patterns and ideas direct to your desktop. The site is enormous with lots of eye candy.

I love Ellie's Quiltplace, and especially the Cat Quilt BOS. There are also a lot of other free patterns. This site is really inspiring and I like it a lot.

Bunny Hill Designs has the most beautiful designs and there is going to be a new BOM called 'Henrietta Whiskers' coming tomorrow, I think.

There is a new BOM at Little Miss Shabby with embroidery and piecing. It looks really cute!

Dawn, at Sweet As Cinnamon is designing a really wonderful BOM called 'Out of the Box', which will use all sorts of lace, bits and bobs. There are 72 deigns, eight each month. It starts tomorrow, so get over there to get the all the gen!!

Hope you enjoy these sites. I will do this occasionally, as it is fun to pass it on.
Till next time.
tich

Subscription Surprise

I told you all about the new Quilt Pattern Magazine in a previous post, with the chance to win a year's subscription. You will never guess what happened? I went on the Blog Tour and left a comment each day, and I won five subscriptions!! I did not know what to do, so I contacted the creator of the magazine, and we used Skype to discuss the problem. I knew the subscriptions were non transferable, and I wanted to share my good fortune with others, so we agreed that I take two subscriptions and return the other three to be redrawn. I would like to thank all the ladies who advertised the Blog Tour, for giving me a chance to read their blogs, get new ideas, make new friends (you know who you are) and to win!! Yipee!! This is going to be a good year!
Till next time.
tich

We Have a Winner

We have a winner. Micki from Irish Muses has won the free subscription to the Quilt Pattern Magazine. Micki lives in a small village in Ireland, so she will be able to gets lots of ideas for new projects and stay green at the same time. Well done, Micki. Enjoy!
tich

Happy New Year (when it comes!)

Happy New Year and

Lang May Yer Lum Reek!!