A Monday Morning Smile

WOW, Every morning I read my email with my breakfast. This morning one special email brought a big smile to my face.
I recieved a nomination for the Sunshine Award from Edith Koprek at Inch By Inch Quilting.
Edith thank you so much, I really appreciate you choosing me for the award.
Please click on Edith's link to view her blog, it is well worth visiting.


Now for how the Sunshine award works. There are a few rules and criteria to be followed.

You need to create a post with the following details:

• Thank the person who nominated you for this Sunshine Award and link them back.
• Then tell something about yourself. 
• Spread the joy by nominating your fellow bloggers and friends, its a way of appreciation.
• Lastly but most important  tell the bloggers about their nomination. 

There you go,  your are all done.

Something about me.

Well most people that know me well know I am a gadget freak. I love my  Mac computer and  my sewing machines, my APQS Lenni longarm. I could add to the list but that would be scary.

My other love is my Kindle. Since purchasing the Kindle nearly 2 years ago I have read so much more than any other time in my life. I am a big fan of science fiction. Right now I'm reading the Weather Warden series.

The only problem with reading more, I can find myself still awake a 2am if a book has really got my attention.  

Lastly, which I think and hope of most people, the most important thing to me are my kids and Granddaughter. Yes they drive me batty sometimes, but I don't know where I would be without them.

Now time to nominate some of my favourite Bloggers and Friends

My First choice is 

Kay from Borderline Quilter . I had the pleasure to meet Kay when she came to my house to see my Longarm quilting machine and frame. We hit it off straight away. Kay's quilting is fabulous, please click her link to view her blog. you won't be disappointed. there is lots of wonderful eye candy.

My next choice is 

Kathy from Tamarack Shack.  If I ever need any inspiration I go to Kathy's blog. Her work is so beautiful. Kathy also has some great tutorials that she shares with us. One being her snow dying which I am longing to try, not enough snow in my part of the world this winter. Please visit Kathy's blog. Again you won't be disappointed. Eye candy galore.

My third choice is 

Marjorie from Marjorie's Quilting Bee . Marjorie has a wonderful blog, with tons of inspiration. She is very giving with her knowledge and time with turorials and help. I am especially taken with Marjorie's embroidery designs for the Accuquilt Go Appliqué dies. They are very well digitised, and sew up beautifully. I am hoping she will add the Go Giraffe Lion and Monkey to her embroidery collection. Hint hint :). Please pay her blog a visit.

My fourth choice is 

Mary from Mary's Quilts . Mary is another special lady, giving so much time to help other quilters .

one of her blogs is The Heart String Quilts program . Please pay this blog a visit to find out about the Heart String program. The work the people do to help others by the making and giving of quilts is amazing.

Beside these two blogs Mary has another site where she freely shares her quilt patterns, and can I say these are wonderful patterns.  All I can say is A VERY BIG THANK YOU Mary for being so generous.

Please pay Mary a visit at her blogs Mary's Quilt Patterns

My 5th Choice
Last but not least is Janette's Blog J Quilts. I have chatted with Janette by email for the last couple of years. She has the same Longarm Machine that I use. I have watched the progress of Janette's  quilting go from strength to strength. she has become a great long arm quilter that produces beautiful quilts. Please visit her Blog and look out for photos of her first Wholecloth. It is beautiful.

Well that it from me today.
Hope where ever you are in the world today life is being good to you.
Happy Quilting Everyone xxx

Weekend Practice Piece

Well I managed to do some quilting this weekend. I was playing with Irena Bluhm's, Bluhm's Plumes Templates. I think I need to purchase Irena's new video on these templates to get the best out of them. I don't suffer many problems normally with thread tension, but with this little practice piece the bobbin thread kept pulling to the top. I also got lots of top thread bobbles on the back. I recently with the help of my son changed the check spring on my longarm. I think I need to check it has been put back together correctly.

Im posting a few photos of my practice piece. It is not great and there are quite a few boo boos that the photos hide. Things I have learned, do not use white bobbin thread and white backing, when the top colour is orange. In my defence it was only a PPP piece :)

Where is this year going

Gosh where has all the time gone. This year is flying by. If I want to reach some of the goals I have set myself, I will need to work harder :).
I finally got the binding put on the little baby quilt I finished quilting last week. I also pulled out a box of scraps and put them through my Accuquilt Studio to make some useful blocks. There does not seem much there for all the scraps I startched  and pressed. I felt good though once that box was emptied but then I found another box, that will have to wait until another day.
The elephants in the Appliqué are from the Accuquilt Go die Elephants parade, and the Embroidery design used to sew down the Appliqué are from Marjorie Busby's online shop. You can see them here Embroidery designs for Accuquilt Dies

 

A Slow Start

Well I was hoping I would be full of fettle and get cracking early this morning.
Thankfully the flu symptoms are subsiding slowly
I did eventually get into my quilting room. First I decided to get the backing of my next quilt on the frame. Then I cut out some blocks for a baby quilt. I have been keen to use my Accuquilt Go Elephant parade die along with Marjorie Busby's embroidery designs. Below is a photo of the stitch out. I think they are very cute.



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Not much to tell this week

Sorry no photos this week. Have been recovering from Flu. I take badly to it as it is something I don't get very often. It must be 5 years since I last had the flu. It hit the whole house, my two sons and Granddaughter have also had it.
I think we are on the mend now.
This week I have been trying to get the binding done on the baby panels I quilted. I think binding is my least favourite job of my quilting hobby. I am never 100% happy even though I take my time to try to do it neatly. Maybe I am over critical.
Tomorrow I am hoping to get a Japanese themed quilt top put on the frame. It has been waiting for its turns since last summer. I also would like to start a child's quilt using the Elephant die from Accuquilt. Fingers crossed nothing will get in the way to stop me. Well it's past the witching hour here in the UK so time for bed. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.


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Roll on weekend

This week has seen has seen my two sons and myself poorly with flu like symptoms. Hot, cold, achy limbs sore throat, bad head, you all know how it goes. I take badly to getting colds as I rarely suffer from them. Hopefully we will all be over it soon. It could be worse.
My quilting this week has consisted of quilting baby panels to practice doing pantos. I think I'm getting a little better at them. Baby panels do not take too long to do, except for when I set the needle in the wrong place after advancing. :)
I must have a marathon binding session as with six baby panels and a one full size quilt and a couple of lap size quilts to do. They are piling up a little.
















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Still Swooning

Here is Swoon number 2. I again used my Accuquilt Studio to cut out all the blocks, though this time I also used the Go Chisel die and the parallelogram die. Using the parallelogram gave me the pleasure to try set in seams ;) . They we are not as difficult as I expected, though I think on the next swoon I will stick to the 3 1/2 HST. I am struggling a little with the bulk in the seams. any tips greatly appreciated. Also not sure whether to press seams to the side or press open.

All opinions welcome

Hope you are all having a good weekend

Happy Quilting