The one where you can win some money!!!

My nephews have set up a website where you can win money - and it's free and they will never sell on your details.  I know it sounds too good to be true but it is genuine (or I wouldn't be telling you about it!)

The link is here, and this is how it works:

Everyday (that you visit the site) you get given 5 'lucky patches'.  You then get taken (by the magic of Google maps) to a map of your current location (best to play on a smart phone so it knows where you are) and can claim that many 'patches' of land - each one is about the size of a car  You can save the patches up if you want, and you get extras for your friends joining.

One 'owned' patch is chosen at random per day - if  it's one of yours that is chosen  you stand to win at least £100.  The boys get their income from the adverts that you scroll past (or visit).  The ads are chosen by Google AdSense - so they are relevant to you: Lisa was looking at Kipling bags on Google, and got a Kipling discount ad - so win for her and Niki has won £100!!!

There is a blogger in Brighton (click here to visit her) who has loads of patches - just look what her area looks like!

Some people block out their house, or their road, some draw pictures - it looks as if Laurie or friends had a go at writing Hi and Hello and drawing a heart, but other people have claimed more patches nearby so it's not as clear as it could be.

I went for negative space and identified the school where I used to work

Someone graffiti-ed Ascot Racecourse with their initials and a picture - I'm only showing half the pic to save your blushes!

but of course its only virtual graffiti so no harm done!

A friend of mine lets her two year old grab the patches each morning - Little B jabs at the screen until she tells Hannah "Mummy all green gone" - This is what their area looks like!

My immediate area has been totally grabbed - all 4 of us are playing

So I save my patches for when I'm visiting somewhere new

Have you noticed a little character in the last two pics?  Meet Bob - he sometimes appears near your patches - and if you click on him you get £5 added to your potential winnings, and you get 50p added each time you log in too

Have I tempted you?  You can email Bob if you have any questions (bob@myluckypatch.com)  or click on this link and have a play!  https://www.myluckypatch.com/?ref=34448

Good Luck!

Not Quite Nothing

I haven't had much time (or maybe inclination) to sit and sew something significant, which explains why I haven't blogged for a while, but I've snatched a few fifteen minutes here and there . . . and thought you might like to see

After the lovely Just Jude sent me goodies from a recent giveaway, I've had the fabric and fabric pens sat on my workbench just looking at me: and yesterday I did a bit of colouring in!

Wonderfully therapeutic , thank you again Jude!

On my trip to Gibraltar I did some more work on La Pass - slow but steady - and still fun! 

Now the girls are in their 20s  I thought I'd finished with fancy dress costumes - but ComicCon beckons, and Niki is going as Sarah Walker from Chuck, in her Weinerlicious outfit (no it means nothing to me either!) so I havnet finished making costumes!

Here is the original, thanks to Google Images

And here is my version

As an aside, Katy at Littlest Thistle recently asked an interesting question - why do we create?   There were some comments, and some off shoot blog posts (Hi Sarah) but then I saw this on Facebook, and I thought it summed it up quite well!  Read the left side first, then read again but right the way across both faces! 

I dont know about making a living, or changing the world, but I certainly create becuae I "have to"

Fabulous Friends

Quilters are such lovely people! I'm sure you'll agree, but I want to give you two examples from just this week.

I met up with Plum (from PlumQuilts) at the Richmond and Kew quilters meeting on Monday evening, and she's not only helping me check in some quilts at our exhibition in 10 days time, she also brought me a whole load of Love Quilting magazines, and some selvedge edges

The second piece of excitement came in the post: Kathy (who blogs at RunningWithRocket) had a giveaway on her blog - a tissue holder for anyone who wanted one.  I chose aeroplane fabric (she has a plane in her back yard!) and it arrived today, but that just turned out to be a small part of the package!!!

It came wrapped in a paper pattern piece (what a great idea) and with chocolate washi tape!, all in a really pretty lacy plastic bag (not quite wrapped like this as I was too impatient to photograph first so I had to try and reassemble for pictures later!)

With TWO really useful zippy vinyl pouches

And what I first took to be a vintage sewing pattern. . .

. . . I know some people collect these, but they don't excite me very much, however it was much more exciting and useful than that . . . It's a note book!

Thank you Kathy and Plum - it's great to have you as my friends xxx

Posted with Blogsy

Books and Bunnies

Last Thursday I taught an adult education workshop in the evening.  I wasn't sure how many would come as it was enrolment on the night and the local authority hadn't advertised it much.

I put it on the Windsor Parents facebook page, and the Hive office (Military and Community information) put it on their facebook page . . .  and we had 11 ladies wanting to come!!!!!

They all worked hard

 and we had nine fab book covers finished by the end of the evening!

Well done ladies

And I've been making Easter Bunnies again!  This is another recommendation from the lovely Plum (the notebook are her instructions too).  The bunnies originated from Urban Threads - they are called Giving Bunnies, and you can read about they and the random acts of kindness they support here.

These are being made for the assorted great nephews and nieces as Easter pressies - the first batch are ready:

And I'd like to make some more to leave for children to find over Easter

Fabulous February

Oh my gosh - February is pretty darn fabulous this year, and we're not even half way through!  At the very end of January (so able to be enjoyed in February) I received two surprise packages (blogged about here) then on Monday this week I received back my consequence quilt and I cant even begin to tell you how delighted I am

And this morning I woke to an email telling me I had won the instructions to this bag from Emma, from Liz's blog: Moments which ties in perfectly with a recent donation of fabric!

Where to start?

OK Richmond and Kew quilters - we all, all 13 of us, got our Consequence Quilts back.  I didn't get photos of anyone else's but they are all fab, and really diverse.

Mine, of course, is the best!

Just look:

I contributed the fabric together with very vague "any design - what is your favourite?" request.

Sue H made a row of these 1/4 log cabin type blocks, saying " I liked the effect this block gives although its very simple"  She's added some almost solids: great fabric choices Sue!

Julie made a row of crazy log cabin blocks with gorgeous (and prefect) flowers in the centres.  " I chose this 'crazy' design because I wanted to try something new (for me) I used strips to make it, without a pattern. Hope it works!?" - oh yes, it works!!!!

Ruth made a row of these "square on point in a square.  I loved the colours"  She added some calming greens too which work really well, as do the blocks

 

Sue B added a row of pinwheels with a lovely salmonny spraytime tying them all together.  She wrote "I like playing with half square triangles.  Also I think pinwheels always look fun and playful" - I was hoping someone would do HSTs - lovely to look at but I'm not a fan of making them!

And Hilary must have read my mind for my other 'hoped for' design.  She wrote "I love working with bright colours and wanted to introduce some of me own patterned fabric.  the curves in the block 'Drunkard's Path' contrast with the other blocks"  I had hoped for a few curves, but got prefect drunkards path portholes!!!!

In case you didn't realise, I am really chuffed with my returned strips!!  I'm eager to add some sashing and getting this finished!  Thank you all

And the bag - its this lovely every day tote - a PDF with loads of idiot proof photos

Thank you Emma and Liz

Good job I've got a week off next week - guess what I'll be making!

Clocks and Consequences, and Giveaway Given Away

I have done some more work on Plum's Consequences Quilt.  I can't show you now, but she will get it back on Monday so I can show you properly then.

The pixelated image of most of it looks like this!

My Christmas pressie from husband was delayed in the post, and was then cancelled by the suppliers, so it all took a bit longer than planned, but finally a box of clock parts arrived!  And now I have this gorgeous, enormous clock on my kitchen wall

 
And can I hear a Yay! and a Yippee?  I finally got a reply from the giveaway winner, so the scissor case is on its way to Margaret (aka Priscilla Precise) in South Africa, via her daughter in London!

One Thousand Posts

Thanks to all of you who entered my little giveaway: the winner has been randomly thingied and (lucky for one) number 13 came up.

Congratilations Pricilla -  have emailed you - let me have your address so I can send it off.

Ah yes, 'it', the prize? Do you want to know what it is? It's this little sewing case.

It's based on this from Pinterest:

I couldn't find instructions but I reckoned I could work it out: Cut card in heart shape and half heart shape for inside of each section, and for the outside of each section, plus the pocket

 

 Use the card pieces as a guide to cut wadding for outside of each section

 

Use the card again to cut fabric slightly bigger than each piece of card
 

Glue card (to wadding where applicable) to fabric, gathering the curved edges to ease smoothly around the curve.

Start sewing together with whip stitch, shoving lace between the sections as applicable to create the hinges

Heave a sigh of relief that it's finished!

I do hope Pricilla likes it!

Posted with Blogsy

Christmas Post (and giveaway reminder)

Our local scout group run a Christmas Card delivery service on the Sundays leading up to Christmas.

The scouts, cubs, beavers, guides, Brownies (and any others I've forgotten) design a stamp: one is chosen and printed onto stickers.  You can buy these stickers in some of the local shops, stick them on cards with local addresses, post them in boxes in the same shops, and they get delivered by the kids.

This year the exec (the adult leaders) decided they wanted to award the delivery boys and girls with a badge to go on their uniform . . . tonight was to be the first meeting back after Christmas, could I design and make 30 badges in time?

Luckily the answer was yes!

One was approved . . . and the other 30 created and whisked away for tonight's meeting before I got a chance to photograph them!

 

If you haven't yet entered my 1000 posts giveaway you might like to leave a comment on this post.  (If you are a no-reply blogger make sure I can get hold of you)

Nearly 1000 Posts (and a giveaway)

My Blogger page tells me I'm nearly at 1000 posts - Yes One Thousand!

I thought I'd do a little give away to celebrate that I've stuck with this since June 2010 and that at least one person has commented on each and every post!

I've made something - it's useful, a bit old fashioned, small enough to fit in a handbag, and incredibly labour intensive - I wont be making another one!

This is all you get in the way of clues!

Do you want a chance of having it?  With maybe a few extra goodies thrown in your general direction?  No hoops to jump through: just add a comment and I'll randomly select one of you!

I think this post will be #991: I'll draw the winner's name on post #1000 which I guess will be middle of January.  Good luck everyone

(If you are a no-reply blogger please make sure I can get hold of you)

I'd like to Introduce You to . . .

First I'd like to introduce you to the lovely Jess who blogs at The Elven Garden.  She lives in Tasmania, where huge areas have been devastated by some huge bushfires in the last week. Many, many homes have been completely destroyed and families have lost everything. The latest report is that about 200 homes have been either destroyed or severely damaged in the bushfires.

There are appeals for money, but Jess is arranging for donations of baby's and kids quilts to pass on to the families who have lost so much in the fires.   If you can help out with this, please click to go to this post, and you can contact her for more info.

I'm in the UK, and as Tasmania is half a world away, the cost of sending a full quilt will be expensive -  but Jess has though of this - she says "If you have quilt tops that just need backing and quilting, I'd be happy to accept these too and quilt them up myself to give to the families who've been affected"

Remember those two pink and turquoise and black quilts I mentioned yesterday?  I think they have a good home to go to!

Just need to finish them

I'd also like to introduce you my real life blogger friend, Annabelle, who blogs at Annabelle Serendipity. Annabelle cooks and blogs and patchworks and quilts and blogs and knits and crochets . . . lives life to the full, being a tourist both home and abroad!  She has this fab looking book to give away - with birds, butterflies and beasties to knit or crochet, so go and visit her [here].

I cant knit or crochet but [look away Lisa] I have a daughter who can crochet, and who has a birthday coming up soon - hum, actually, I rescind the suggestion that you enter the giveaway: please don't go and enter Annabelle's giveaway, as that reduces my chances!

Super Squishy

I just came in from the garden to find a squishy envelope hanging through the letter box . . .
and this was inside

which opened up to be this

Which opens up to show this

Lucky lucky me

Thank you Teje and Nero :-) I love it.  It is *even* better in real life than in the photos!!!!

(Is blogger spell check working for anyone else?)

Negligence

I have been very negligent, and I will try and remedy lots of overdue thanks in this post!  

The lovely Jackie made me the most useful pressie when she came over a few weeks ago, and I haven't properly thanked her for it - as you can see it is already in good use:

It holds pins and needles, my glasses (sigh) and I've attached the scissors that Jackie previously gave me to it too - now there are no threads on the arms of the chair - yippee!

She also brought Lisa a lovely crochet hook case as a thank you for the loan of the bed

but given that Lisa wasn't home anyway, and I had to clear the room (admittedly of my stuff) to even *find* the bed, I think I deserve it more - luckily for Lisa I cant crochet, so it's no good to me!!!! 

I also need to thank Teje in advance - I commented on a post on her blog . . .  well actually I commented on a guest post, posted by her handsome Alsatian, Nero.  Nero was very kindly offering one of Teje's lovely 2-in-1 makeup bags to celebrate summer (they live in sunny Crete, not cloudy England).  Nero very kindly picked my name from the basket (well he ate the others and didn't eat mine, that's as good as being picked isn't it?),

Teje is sending me this super bag   Do visit her ETSY shop and look at the others she has made too

I also, in the last few months have been awarded this award from Annabelle Serendipity who says "Benta at SLIK stitches really does do some amazing stuff and I like to see her photos and hear about her exploits - but - get that kitchen sorted Benta!"

(and I was really chuffed to be awarded it in the same keystroke as Hadley at Flying Blind!!!)

 

and I have been awarded this award by Rebecca who said "Benta at Slik Stitches is absolutely lovely! I've followed this blog for ages now and she creates some absolutely beautiful quilts among other things!", and also by Amo who said "Always making things and does so much in her community to encourage stitching."

I have to tell you 5 things that you may not know about me:

Hum, 

• I love instant coffee, but not real coffee, 
• I was so bad at sewing at school I had to take Home Economics (yes Annabelle, cooking!) for my practical subject
• For all the sewing and other crafting I have tried over the years, my two very best creations are my daughters
• Next spring I'll have been married 25 years (!)
• My favourite colour is yellow, but I don't have any yellow clothes

So THANK YOU to all of you, and I am so sorry it has taken me so long!