Scatterday W

Let the fun begin. 

The letter for this round is W and the categories are 
# Expensive 
# Music 
# Exciting 
# WIP 

So now you need to venture out and find a photo for each of those categories that begins with W. As I said in the previous announcement for this round you will have two weeks in which to organise yourself, so publication date is 5th January. 

Can't wait to check out the blogs.

What is Scatterdays?

Scatterdays is a bit like categories.  Every Saturday a letter and four different categories will be listed.  Scatterers have one week in which to find one thing for each category, photograph it and upload it to their blog.  The following Saturday surfers often cruise around to check out what you found.  After you have checked out other scattering blogs you can then start on next week's list.. and so it goes around.

If you would like to join in simply email me your name and blog....then get ready to photograph.

Scatterdays Announcement 1

Scatterdays starts this Saturday.  For the first round you will have two weeks to find and upload your pictures but after that it will be one week between my announcement and your blog display.  I have allowed two weeks for the first round as this is a busy time and as I thought it would be good for the displays to start with the new year.

If anyone misses the announcement of the letter and categories this will always be updated at the top of the side column on my blog.  Also just to the right here is a full list of participants with direct links to their blogs. Could everyone please check that the link works and get back to me if it is either not working or incorrect?

If you would like to add all/some of the links to your own blog it is very easy >>>> go to settings >>>>> layout >>>> add a gadget >>>> select the gadget blog list and add them in the box that turns up.  If this isn't clear and you would like more info plz get back to me.

As I am also running this through SCQ there will be four categories with the fourth being a quilt related one everytime... some will be easy and some perhaps not so, while the other three will be random. There are many new categories from last time as I will be using my category source from a game I devised for school and it has some very different categories to the original game.

Looking forward to seeing all of the new entries.  Come and join us.  If your name isn't listed then contact me with details of your blog and I will add it to the list

More Blocks from Carol

Flamboyance

 Well Carol has been busy. Two more blocks from Collection 2.  The beautiful floral and pink I called Flamboyance, while the sparkling one below was originally called Not Here Thanks. 

Raconteur was such a great quilt for allowing an unbelievable array of fabric designs and colours to be used.  While these two may look world's apart I used equally as diverse fabrics.  Some even made it into the quilt while others made it into the not this time pile. 

It may surprise people to realise that there were about thrity blocks left over when I completed Raconteur.... You would think that as I am an ex-maths teacher I would have been able to count how many blocks were needed.  But then which quilter doesn't have left over blocks... the beginnings of another quilt?

Not Here Thanks

Not Here Thanks was named as my family drove through one of those nuclear free suburbs which have the signs declaring as you drive into it. 

We were on the way to visit a friend in the hospital and we wondered if people living in that area would also reject nuclear medicine in their treatments. 

In this day and age nuclear medicine gives quick, accurate diagnosis of conditions such as cancer, heart disease and numerous others. In some cases, radiation is used to treat the condition. Just a wonder?

First Entry

Yesterday I received the first entry int a competition I am running and it came from Carol Le Maitre. Carol has finished the block I called 'Merry Xmas'. Don't you just love her colours they are so vibrant.. they were even more vibarant before I converted her jpeg for uploading to the web too.  I can't wait to see more. 

She is now working on one of the hand pieced blocks and hopefully we will see it soon.

In an effort to get as many people as possible to send in a photo of their finished block/s I decided that I would do a draw periodically from everyone who sends in a photo of their finished projects.  The prize... why more patterns of course.

Photoshop Skills Improving

Well this has been a productive few weeks.  I have finally managed to write up some of the patterns for Raconteur and boy have my Photoshop and CAD skills improved.  I know that self praise is no  praise as they say but this isn't meant as a skite.. just a comment on how practice does improve one's skills. Now if I could work out how to add a border to this jpeg that would be something else.

This is the wallhanging which I photoshopped out of Raconteur..wouldn't it be grand if we could make quilts as quickly as this took. Yes I realise that you don't know it took me the better part of two days to make this picture but trust me that is a lot quicker than what it took me to make the blocks for this quilt.  Going by my average from the original quilt it would take me about 200 hours and by anyone's calculation that is a lot more than two days.  Mind you there is no softness or comfort gained from snuggling up to a computer screen jpeg:(  

I suppose I shall have to continue with the quilting as nothing beats that tactile sensation.

Pattern Sale

To celebrate the recent success of Raconteur at the South Australian Festival of Quilts and also the fact that it appeared on the cover of the latest issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting I am having a sale on the pdf patterns check out the sale prices here.

Pattern Sale

To celebrate the recent success of Raconteur at the South Australian Festival of Quilts and also the fact that it appeared on the cover of the latest issue of Australian Patchwork and Quilting I am having a sale on the pdf patterns check out the sale prices here.

Competition Winners

Well I have been away for the past two weeks and so am running behind in selecting the winners for the two recent competitions which ran through this blog.  

I just did a random spin the wheel and see where it stops to find that Linda Hubbard from Canada  was the winner of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks but as she had already won a copy of the magazine she kindly said to redraw it and so Trish from Tennessee is the second lucky winner.

After clearing that draw up I then did the next draw and Fran C from Aussie is the winner of one of the collections from my Raconteur patterns.

Fran has chosen Collection 8 and I can't wait to see what her collection looks like when she finishes.

Quiltaway Weekend

A few weekends ago I went to the NSW Quilt Guild's retreat at Jamberoo. This is usually held in September but, luckily for me, this year they had to run it later as the usual place had already been booked for that weekend.  It was a perfect weekend.  Company was lots of fun.  Food was great and many things were completed..or at least there was great progress.  

Three quilts which I just adored were the New York Beauty which was being made by .. the person who sat beside me all weekend and whose name I can't remember right now for the life of me :( but it is still a beautiful quilt.

 Another beautiful quilt was this one, which if I remember correctly is an Anne Summerland reproduction pattern.  It has also been a while in the making but will definitely be worth the wait when it is finished. 

The final quilt which I would love to have a go at some time was being made by Judith D.  It came from a magazine and looks similar to the Milliefirore Quilts designed by Willnye Hammerstein.

Perfect weekend for everyone.