Scatterday Z

Artwork by Karen Anne Brady
You just have to love this zentangle of the letter Z. If you haven't heard of zentangles before do a google and you will be amazed. There is even a blog which does a daily update of a new zentangle. It is really a very relaxing art form, even if you're not stressed.
Anyway the categories for this week are
# Notorious
# Edible
# Family
# ZZZZZZ
You might even want to try drawing a zentangle for each category.

posting date 20th July

(k)Nees rule the Scatterday

Well this is an easy Scatterday post. During the past fortnight I have been to my knee specialist, had an MRI.. not a happy way to spend an hour or so... Torn cartilage it seems is the cause of my pain and swelling. Day surgery will be needed but as I am off to NZ for the quilt symposium in a couple of weeks and then the surgeon is off the NZ for skiing with the mates, then Paul is in for a new knee the following week (and we couldn't get a job lot discount either) looks like mine won't be done until probably September.

For celebration I think I can submit Paul's new knee as that will be a cause for definite celebration.. so we are having a new (k)nee celebration. I have even decided to make a cake to celebrate... in truth I have decided to make a cake as Paul won't be home to prevent such event happening... I need to lose a few kilos and he is helping as best he can by keeping my nose out of the pantry and fridge. He is also refusing to cook any nasties (interpret that to mean sweets) until I reach whatever stage I want that he doesn't have to feel guilty for feeding me all of the sweets I love. You have to love old google I did a search for "cake decorating knees images" and this is it..even I could manage this decoration as it is simply a picture that you stick onto the top of the cake.... so cooking a cake is the only hurdle.

Here you can see a photo of the nasty ocean between North Beach and New Zealand.  this nasty New Zealand section, of the Not North Pacific Ocean, is known to many people as the South Pacific Ocean. This photos was actually taken in NZ and again found using google so we have here

Notions ..my sewing room is the home to just about any notion that was ever invented I was going to photograph my favourite, well present favourite anyway, but it can't be found so of course google again to the rescue. So what is this well it is a left handed ergonomic rotary cutter and it is great. I bought it earlier in the year when I had horrid RSI. Now that I only have moderate to severe RSI I can't find it but am not as stressed either about it:) Here is the right handed version. It's a great little cutter and a=was very easy to learn to use with my left hand.

Margaret's Collection 8 Progress

It has been just over a month since I took these photos and my apologies to Margaret for taking so long to upload them but as you know I have been a bit laid low, plus busy as can be, the rest of the time. I am glad that I am on leave at present or nothing would be being uploaded.. and I am still behind in everything that I planned to do.

Anyway I have finally uploaded some great photos...Ok so the photos are only great because the blocks are so gorgeous but it is good to finally show everyone.
Margaret loves Civil War Reproductions and has decided to make all of the blocks in this collection pink and cream. Her thoughts at this stage are that her next collection will be browns and for that reason I chose brown as the background colour for each block. I have never been good at mixing my colours in Civil War fabrics and for that reason have only ever made two quilts in those colours. I wish I could match them as well as Margaret does.

C8 City Living	City Living was the first block Margaret made. When I made it I was reminded of the crapped living in major cities and with open spaces often being so far that people forgot they were there.	C8 Banana Custard
Although not using bright spring colours Margaret's choice of a totally different pink to her others does give this block a surprise factor in Spring Surprise.	C8 Spring Surprise	Now admittedly Margaret's colour choices makes Banana Custard a totally inappropriate name for this block. I love her fussy cut flowers, don't you? The busyness of her Summer Picnic suggests a great day for everyone also.
C8 Rising Mist	What a difference fabric and colour choice makes. I had trouble picking Rising Mist as the block name and if I hadn't known that Margaret was only making Collection 8 I would still be searching for its name. Great colours aren't they.	C8 Summer Picnic

BOM 5, Baby Blue & Photos for Uploading to Blog

Hi everyone,

C5 Baby Blue

Just had a thought when you send me a photo of your block please leave it at a high resolution as that allows me to crop it, watermark it and upload it at a large enough size for everyone to see your lovely fabrics and so appreciate your block.
Anyway the latest block in the free BOM series is now available on the website so go and pick it up. I look forward to seeing your photo.

Baby Blue was named because of the fabric colours. Did you realise that until recently blue wasn't always for boys and pink wasn't always for girls?
The evolution of our preference for these colours for the particular sex has come about just since the first world war. Prior to that time both boys and girls wore the same crisp white dresses as girls until they were 6 or 7 years old. These colours were chosen for practicality since it was easiest to bleach everything. The bleaching rendered everything both clean and hygienic. Then pastel colours were introduced and babies were generally dressed in either. However around the time of World War I, there developed the fear that a child would grow up perverted if s/he were dressed in the 'wrong' coloured clothes and so the clothes became gender specific and with time these colours became set in stone. Research shows it could have quite easily gone the other way with pink being for boys and blue for girls.
Men are gradually changing and wearing pink, particularly in Australia following the strong support from various male sporting teams for Breast Cancer Awareness, whose official colour is pink. However this has not been extended into baby's clothes.
I was intending to explain the origin of all of the block names but as this has been a long post will do it another day.

Surprise Day Collection

Last month I had an idea that each month I would, on a random day, offer another collection at the sale price for people who were wanting to make more than one collection that month. The random collection will not be featured in the BOM section rather it will be found in the regular collection section, don't you love rhyme?

I will be including a link on this blog directly to the Surprise Day Collection (SDC). The link will appear on the day of the Surprise Day. The date for the SDC will be announced on this blog and also in the yahoo group on the first day of the month and there will be a post on the Surprise Day. There won't be any other notices about it.

July's SDC will be uploaded on 17th July. There is no corresponding BOM being released at the same time. check back here on the 17th for the direct link, coupon code and info about the collection. It is a beautiful collection...but then aren't they all?

Surprise Day Collection

Last month I had an idea that each month I would, on a random day, offer another collection at the sale price for people who were wanting to make more than one collection that month. The random collection will not be featured in the BOM section rather it will be found in the regular collection section, don't you love rhyme?

I will be including a link on this blog directly to the Surprise Day Collection (SDC). The link will appear on the day of the Surprise Day. The date for the SDC will be announced on this blog and also in the yahoo group on the first day of the month and there will be a post on the Surprise Day. There won't be any other notices about it.

July's SDC will be uploaded on 17th July. There is no corresponding BOM being released at the same time. check back here on the 17th for the direct link, coupon code and info about the collection. It is a beautiful collection...but then aren't they all?

Next BOM will be uploaded tomorrow

BOM2 - The Rice Pickers	BOM3 - Burning Bright
BOM4 - Blackberry Freedom	BOM5 - Baby Blue

Well the free Block of the Month Series is now into month 4 and BOM5, and it has been interesting to see the interest in the blocks each month. New people sign up every month and a few drop off but basically the same number of people continue each month to download the free BOM.

 I have seen a few photos but would love to see more when you have the time to send them over. Although I fully understand people just not getting around to it. Hey I made another 23 blocks for my new quilt Nursery Rhymes before I managed to photograph them and then another week or so passed before I uploaded this photos. 24 hours a day are not enough.

This month we are now up to BOM 5, which is one of the easy blocks. I have found the less pieces in a block the easier the block is. Hope it is the same for others.

For those wondering about the numbering for the different blocks, they are numbered to correspond to the collection from which the block is taken. In Raconteur some collections are not made of hexagons. These are the corner and side collections. These use extended hexagons and are only needed in bed quilts (called layouts). As the BOM will result in a wallhanging, all of the needed blocks will be hexagons and so no blocks will be taken from some collections, such as C1, C7, C13, C20 and I can't remember the rest.

As July has arrived a new block will be uploaded tomorrow. Check it out...print it..sew it and send me a photo. 

Back Again

C24 Ouch	Just a few or Carol's  latest gems	C24 Bali Jungle
C24 Planes of Paper	C25 Windmills	C25 Kanuka
C25 Sparrow's Flight	C25 Kimberly Gem	C24 Too Tight

Well now that I have decided to resume this blog I will also have to upskill my Photoshop skills. Since I last used Photoshop I have upgraded my version and the latest version, in my opinion at least, is not as easy as what I have been using since the ark landed as they say.

I have been trying to get some more photos of blocks and Carol thankfully sent some photos which she has previously uploaded to the yahoo group.

I really appreciate the time she took to do this as she is in the midst of preparing for a six week stint in Brisbane, where her darling husband Bob is to start chemo. It really is unfair that just as one has time to do things the old body decides to develop aches, pains, bumps and other bits.

Fingers crossed for Bob that news improves over the next few months.

Nursery Rhymes begins

Well after a long delay I have decided to restart this blog. I had thought that it would be too busy for me to upload all of the photos from blocks that people are making, or hope to make. However it appears as though most people don't like to upload their photos and so I have decided to resume this blog to hopefully show some blocks made by others. 
I have photographed a few myself and am hoping to take some more photos in the next few weeks.

The above photo is of a new design layout that I am trialling with the Raconteur 141 blocks. I love the appearance but if you look carefully you will see that the top of the blocks slopes slightly. When I put the layout into my CAD it is very obvious that because of how the coloured borders meet each block is slightly lower than its neighbour.
The second photo shows the spacing needed for the blocks to line up straight but it doesn't seem as WOW as the first. Oh well I still have another 19 blocks to make and will worry about it when I finish.

Nursery Rhymes begins

Well after a long delay I have decided to restart this blog. I had thought that it would be too busy for me to upload all of the photos from blocks that people are making, or hope to make. However it appears as though most people don't like to upload their photos and so I have decided to resume this blog to hopefully show some blocks made by others. 
I have photographed a few myself and am hoping to take some more photos in the next few weeks.

The above photo is of a new design layout that I am trialling with the Raconteur 141 blocks. I love the appearance but if you look carefully you will see that the top of the blocks slopes slightly. When I put the layout into my CAD it is very obvious that because of how the coloured borders meet each block is slightly lower than its neighbour.
The second photo shows the spacing needed for the blocks to line up straight but it doesn't seem as WOW as the first. Oh well I still have another 19 blocks to make and will worry about it when I finish.