Thanksgiving and Being Thankful

I was contacted by SewCalGal to let me know about another Giveaway, which looks absolutely wonderful. Go here to see the rules. She is dong this for Thanksgiving and it got me thinking. We do not have Thanksgiving here in Scotland, and I think it is a great pity that we do not. We (I) have so many things, for which to be thankful, and we (I) take so many things for granted. So, at the end of my posts, I am going to put a little thank you, for something that I see or that has happened recently. You can ignore it, if you want, but it is just my way of paying back and to say I am grateful. So today ...

Thankful Thought - There are an awful lot of things I am really thankful for today, but the one uppermost is that all the teddies for the Mercy Ships are finished (said with a BIG grin ). I have heard from the Mercy Ships, and the boxes should have arrived in Holland and from there they will go onto Togo, to be distributed to the patients. I also want to thank all the people in the island who made this possible. A grand job!! Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Till next time.

tich

UFO and Another Giveaway

My Bernina sewing machine embroidery module is working its socks off at the moment. No pictures yet, but I will take some soon, to show you what I am making. I pulled out a couple of UFOs to finish off, recently. I have a lot of these Shoofly blocks lying about. I used to teach Patchwork for Beginners, when I lived on Mainland Scotland. This was one of the first blocks I used, to show how to sew shapes together. I sewed on a border and stipple quilted the block. I am more used to very close stipple/vermicelli quilting, but I made it much further apart this time, to see what it looked like. I like it. I am going to make it into a cushion, but will have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to finish it, as I want to put some cording round the edge. I might be lucky and get some in Kirkwall, when I go over on Monday.

One of my favourite blogs is Nebraska Views. Lynn is such a talented lady, and she passes on what she knows in a great blog. Recently she blogged about the sites Quilter Blogs and Quilting Bloggers. I went across to these sites and spent ages looking at loads of wonderful blogs. I joined both sites, and the hits on my site have increased significantly. They are great sites and I thoroughly recommend them. Thanks, Lynn.

Have a look at Bejeweledquilts. This is the last week for the Inch Worm fabric giveaway. It is fabulous! Fabric to make the jars for the quilt below, and there is still time to win the quilt as well. It would look so nice in my hall! I want it! (See below)

Must go and have a cup of tea.

tich

100 Books Challenge

Click on the above picture to find out about the newest reading challenge for 2010. I read about this in Colletta's Kitchen Sink blog. You have to read 100 books in a year. That should be no problem! My nose is never out a book, and I am the first to admit - 'I read anything!!' I am not into books, where I have to think long and deep. I want to read something quickly, and I will definitely not remember it next week. Short term memory only!!

Not much sewing going on just now. Too many outside attractions. I was asked to judge the teddy bear contest in the school on Friday. I have pictures, but you are not supposed to show pictures of children, unless you have the parents' permission. I would have to go round all the islanders for that, as every child in the school brought in their favourite soft toy. It was for 'Children in Need'. We have a huge charity event throughout the whole of Britain, supported by all the well-known celebrities, to raise money for the benefit of children. The BBC (television) ran a programme on Friday night which lasted for seven hours, showing all the things that were happening, where the money from the previous year had been used and asking for more donations. Local events take place, the crazier the better, and usually every school has some form of event to do with 'Pudsey Bear', the character of the charity. Our school had a assembly, organised by the senior pupils, and there were a lot of fun competitions with prizes. The assembly culminated with each child lining up with their bear/soft toy. One of the senior pupils dressed up as Pudsey, so she and I had to choose the biggest bear, the smallest bear and the best dressed bear. It was great fun!! This year, so far, over £20,000,000 has been raised nationally.

Yesterday, we were asked to help out at the church sale, so Raymond and I were on the bookstall. Again, great fun and, of course, I had to help the funds by buying some more books!!

Must go. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

tich

Quilt Top

This is what I have been working on last week. I used the white jelly roll and the ***jelly roll and also added some of my stash to brighten it up a bit and add a bit of variety to the colours. I am pleased with this. I did not want the borders to be as rigid as the centre of the quilt, so I played about with the sizes. I had fun, and I like it. It is a simple design, but it was quick to do (remember I am a slow worker) and I am not worrying any more about how I was going to use up the *** jelly roll. I do not think I will not get it sandwiched before Christmas, as I have a lot of other things to make (last minute as usual), but at least I will not be dreading taking it out, to work on it. Big grins all round tonight, and I did twenty-four lengths at swimming (small lengths, but at least I did some!) The bread machines are programmed, so I am off to bed.

Night all!

tich

Sewing, Dancing and Hoping!

I have actually been sewing this week. We were in Kirkwall on Monday for the dentist, and I was supposed to go over again on Thursday for a Christmas shopping trip. The weather turned nasty and I wimped out. I am all right on the ferry with winds up to 40mph, but the forecast said there was going to be gusts up to 58mph, and my stomach lurched at the thought of it! Just as well I didn't go. There was torrential rain for most of the day, as well as high winds, so I stayed at home, baked in the morning and sewed in the afternoon. You've already read about the *** jellyroll, but I had just under half of it left and a full white one, and my friends will tell you I don't like getting beat. Stubborn is not the word for it. I had a think and started cutting. Above are three pieces of leftover fabric. I might show you tomorrow how far I have progressed.

This has been a strange week for weather. One day we have glorious sun and the next torrential rain. We had the Harvest Home Dinner Dance on Friday night, and from the beginning of the week the forecasters were predicting gales and flooding. for most of the UK. On Friday there were 120 flood warnings out for England and Wales alone. The Harvest Home is to celebrate a successful harvest. We had roast beef, clapshot (potatoes and turnip mashed together) mixed veg, beetroot and gravy, then pancake with a gorgeous caramel sauce and cream, tea/coffee, shortbread, a chocolate and a double of your choice (whisky, rum, vodka etc) all for $10 each. Then we had the dance. The original band cancelled, as they were worried they would not get back home for a few days, if the storm was a bad as expected. The band was made up of people who had not really played together before, but what a night. We stayed right to the end (2am) and had a great time. One of my friends, who was down in England, phoned to say their neighbour's car floated away. We have had high winds, but nothing like what was expected.

There are a few great Giveaways just now. Look at this new business and Giveaway -

The niece of fellow blogger Barb from Bejeweled Quilts by Barb has opened a new, on-line store. Click the picture to follow the link to the goodies. Barb is also giving a Giveaway, and what a Giveaway, to celebrate the new store opening! Go here.

Best of luck (but I want them!).

tich

Bonfire Night

I am a bit late in posting this, but I thought some of you might be interested. On Saturday night the island was invited to a bonfire and a fireworks display, to celebrate Guy Fawkes. To anybody who does not know why we have a bonfire with a Guy on top of it , go here.

The bonfire was built on Cata Sands, a well known beauty spot on the island, and which is the next bay along from us. The fire department built it in the bay, so that when the tide came in, the water would douse any lingering embers, and no children would be tempted to try and relight the fire, when all the adults had gone. The first picture is of the bonfire being lit by the firemen. It was huge, as everyone had been saving wood for weeks. You can see the reflection of the fire in some of the water, which had not drained from the bay. Everybody wore their wellies!
The firemen had difficulty lighting the front of the fire, (they are more more used to putting them out!), so the back of the bonfire was blazing away merrily, as you can see in this picture.
There was free soup and sandwiches for everyone, and more than £400 of fireworks, which, for a small community, was a lot. They were really pretty, but difficult to photograph! It was not too cold and everybody enjoyed themselves thoroughly! Thanks for all the hard work that went into organising this.

tich

Raffle quilt

Go here to see and read about the above quilt. You can have the chance of winning this quilt, and also the chance of helping Jess get to Africa. Go on! It only takes a click to go and see what this is all about!

tich