Tagged again

I must say, I have been very pleased that I have met so many nice bloggers of late.... And I'm pretty chuffed too that I was (randomly) tagged for this cool sweet treat by Corry .

We don't really 'do' Halloween in our house although I did buy a pumpkin today with the intention of making a lantern and using the pumpkin for pumpkin fritters... yum!


So I randomly tag....
Samantha - Diary of a mad fabriholic
Andrea Welsh Quilter
Patti - Quilting is my passion

Pass it on if you wish, ignore it if you don't... (funny, I don't normally do things like this LOL)

Tagged by Laila

I have been tagged by Laila for a Meme:

4 jobs I have had:

-shoeshop sales assistant (first job)
-selling wooden back massagers and then clothing on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town
-advertising sales manager for a beautiful antique carpet and textile magazine
-mother and wife a.k.a.'chief cook and bottle-washer'

4 films I could watch over and over:

-Shawshank Redemption
-Walk the Line
-Moulin Rouge
-lots of others, but I can't think right now...

4 TV shows I watch:

-Grey's Anatomy
-Project Runway
-Boston Legal
-Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, but actually I don't watch a lot of TV unless I can sew at the same time

4 places I have lived:

-Cape Town, South Africa
-Holzgerlingen, Germany
-London, UK
-Yorkshire, UK

4 favorite foods:

-Ginger (in dark chocolate)
-Figs (glazed or in syrup)
-Microwave Popcorn (lightly salted)
-Dark Chocolate with orange cream centres (oh dear, that's two chocolate things...)

4 favorite colors:

-Red
-Purple/Plum
-Blue
-Green

4 places I'd love to be right now:

-on a beach just staring at the sea
-wine-tasting on a beautiful wine farm in Cape Town with family and friends
-Germany, visiting friends
-in bed under a favourite quilt getting some decent uninterrupted sleep!

4 names I love but could/would not use for my children:

-Fred
-Katya
-Rose
-Tristan

4 people I'd love to tag with this Meme (sorry LOL):

-Jane W
-Anne B
-Lynda
-Helen K

Feel free to do it if you wish, or ignore it if you don't :O)

The real reason for the postal strike?

Friday, our postbox was FULL! I got a great block for our one-on-one African Blockswap from Kate. Thank you Kate.

I also got my 'Manic Monday' win from The Quilting Pirate a.k.a. Toni. It's beautiful! I loooove the purple star fabric and all the different kitty prints are so amazing. I was really pleased to win this - Thank you so much Toni. Definitely check out Toni's Blog on a Monday (and Kate's too) as there are some lovely things up for offer from these very generous bloggers!

And Toni kindly sent me my first Civil war fabrics... Thank you so much Toni for these too!

Also from Toni in another parcel are my purchases from The Quilting Pirate's Home Shopping Network. Go and take a look as Toni has some lovely things for sale...


On a Yorkshire life note. We have grass. So now we have an activity centre too.
The kids love it and we had some great visitors today who came and tried it out!

'Anything goes' African style

I was telling a fellow blogger that when it comes to African fabric 'anything goes'. Well that's true, but all of my African blocks that I have swapped with Kate so far have been rather 'conservative' so time to practice what I preach...

Take two fabric squares (I have to make 2 blocks - one for Kate and one for me). I wanted to use a focus centre...

Add borders and just sew, but remember to have fun (I did)!!

until you get to the size you need (our blocks are 12.5"). Trim them to size...

and voila...!



This is a similar method to Patti's 'crumb chaos' blocks except that I haven't used really teeny crumbs. But if you haven't seen it already Patti has a wonderful tutorial to make quick blocks the 'Crumb Chaos' way!
(See Patti’s 'Crumb Chaos' tutorial here)


Still on an African theme...
A while back a friend of mine sold me some of her African fabrics and included a bag of scraps. In the bag were a few half started blocks. With her permission I decided to put them all together adding all the borders that were missing. I made a load more from the bits making a quilt top out of all the blocks - it was a bit like putting a puzzle together LOL.
Here it is... a bit wonky and I need to straighten it up a bit, but I guess that's what happens when you have no straight lines to follow (and no design wall) LOL

Post, Party, Guilt

Here in the UK we have had postal strikes. Today we got mail, 2 bits of junk and a bank statement! That was all after several days of no mail. The postie says that any expected post will be piled up in the sorting centres waiting to get to us. This lack of post (mail) has left me with a lack of wanting to post (blog).

But, for all my family and friends who read this blog, I will show some photos from Saturday's "Farm Party". It was a great day, the setting was beautiful...

and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The goats were fed by the kids (each child got a free bag of food as part of the party package)

Tractor-boy inspects the Lama


Two birthday boys...


Two cakes...


We all went for a ride on the 'Wizzick', the farm's mode of transport...




While we were out, I spotted a gate that would be perfect to photograph a quilt on...


Speaking of which, here comes the guilt! I need to put the binding on my Scrapbuster top. I've had it back from Chris for weeks. I just couldn't decide on the binding. I have now decided after consulting with my creative director (DH) that I am going scrappy on the binding too.

I really want to make another one of these one day (with rose prints naturally!)

The reason I feel particularily guilty that it (along with 4 kid's quilts) is not bound is because yesterday I picked up my "Butterfly Blossom" quilt from Chris. I haven't even looked at it.

It's still wrapped up in the plastic cover - I'll treat myself to a good look as soon as I've put the binding on my Scrapbuster!!

And the winners are....

I had to bribe tractor-boy with a bag of 'wiggly worms' to do the drawing, but as he can't read yet he was the most objective LOL. Once we got started he really got into it and enjoyed picking the little pieces of paper to choose the winners.
I was just sorry I only had 4 things to give away for my 100th post. I would have loved to be able to send something to everyone who commented (maybe next time!) Here are the results:

The winner of the bag is...

Tum ti tum ti tum (that was sort of a drum roll....)
Cathi! (If I'd known you were going to win Cathi, I would have mailed it with your fabric LOL)

The three chilli keyring winners are:

Die vliegende koe


Lynda


and Juliann (Juliann, I know you didn't want to be in the drawing, but I put everyone in so you're a winner and that's that LOL.)


Thank you all for your comments. Would the winners please email me your snail mail address if I don't have it already and I'll try and mail these off early next week (postal strike willing!)

Here are my last Focus fabric blocks. No more for me now for a bit as I have 5 quilts to bind! And another one at the Longarmer that I need to pick up next week. Oh, that I knew how to do proper binding, I may get desperate and do my "cheater's" version - again!! At least it's a quick method if not so pretty.
Anyhow, here is A Dandy...

And here is Antique Tile (all blocks from Quilterscache again)


Tomorrow we are having a 'Farm party' for the boys as it's Toby's 1st birthday tomorrow. My baby will be one, wish he'd grow up a bit slower!!!
Here he is at a few weeks old (October 2006)

And here they both are on a quilt made by my friend Ria in Granny's garden in Cape Town (around about March 2007)

The swap exchange

Firstly thank you to Cathi who sent me these yummy scrummy and delicious rose prints for my hexagon project that I do when I'm home in South Africa. They are delectable and shall all be put to good use. Thanks Cathi!



Here's me trying to find time to photograph them in the birthday aftermath of boxes...



I've managed to make a few swap blocks for the BlockBuddySwaps Focus fabric swap. The focus fabric being the 'Forest Fire' batik... Here is 'The Dandy' (all blocks in this swap are from Quilterscache)



And here is my adapted version of 'Patience corners'...

In the nick of time

I am doing two Block of the Months (BOM's). I've never done any before, but I'm really enjoying the fact that you only have to make one or sometimes two blocks in the month. Surely, I can find time to do that? LOL
Here is my September effort for the Quilterscornerclub New York Beauty BOM's (the top two).



The bottom two blocks are my June blocks that I have re-done as I had a 'happy accident' with the first two! At the time I couldn't get our printer to work and so I asked a friend of mine's DH to print them for me. He 'scaled' them instead of 'cropping' them and so they are a bit small. Never mind, I didn't really like the color scheme that much anyway (you can see the first 2 here)

Tractor-boy will draw a 100th post winner on Friday and ALL comments from that post will go in the draw so thank you all for the wishes.

Birthdays and giveaways...

Well I have made it to my 100th post on the same day that my big boy turned 3! So Happy Birthday Jack, I hope you have many many more! Here he is with his birthday loot...


Here's baby brother who'll be one next week...
(note the fabric stored in our bedroom while my sewing room gets 'done'!)

The cake for school... (pesky icing wouldn't set, but that's what you get when you ice a cake at midnight I guess)


To celebrate my 100th post I'll send someone this African fabric tote bag that I have made along with an African apple key ring...

If you'd like a chance to win this bag, just leave a comment on this post. I will draw a name next Friday so leave a comment by then with a way to contact you if you don't have a blog. I'll send three runners-up (assuming I have that many comments LOL) a chilli key ring.... (the apple keyring can be seen here too)


Next week, regular sewing commences!!! I have been sidetracked this week as a friend has offered to put a few of my things on her craft stall on Sunday so I have been finishing bits and pieces (cushions, bags included) and making bits.. Hopefully she'll have great weather and lots of customers :O)

I have also made my PIF's (Pay it Forwards) which I signed up to on Kerry’s blog. Kerry still has a couple of hundred days, but I just wanted to get mine done and off my list. Here are the backs of them...


I have some NYB BOM's to make and tons of WIP's, UFO's etc... so I better get going LOL. Actually I feel so much more content when I sew, funny that huh?

A better, but busier week

It has taken me days to get over that nasty bug and I still don't feel myself, but maybe it's just a sign of getting older. After we were all sick, no-one wanted to touch a thing except DS1 who had lunch and then dinner! In fact, last night was the first proper meal I've had in days - sadly I will not be needing to change my entire wardrobe for a smaller size LOL

This week I won't be blogging much or sewing either, I imagine, as we have lots of birthdays coming up.
Crazy to think that it's been 3 years on Friday that I first screamed my lungs out with DS1 and next week it will be a year that DS2 smoothly and more calmly joined this little family of ours. Here DS2 wants to know who to talk to about getting some good stuff...


This time last year we were building an extension which needed a roof and I was going insane trying to 'nest' in the chaos. This time, this year we are renovating and needing another roof...

At least we've got a good view...

And DH managed to get the plastic sheeting back on just before the big rains came!!

My Mother is back safe and sound in South Africa so there was no holding me and my mess back in the 'spare' room..