Day TWO - the excitement mounts

Boy is my excitement mounting.  I just can't begin to explain how much. And now Ladies and Gentlemen for the promised first, sort of, tutorial on how to get going with your Go! Baby.

I think of lot of making anything is in the preparation.  And here is where it starts.  The first thing you have to do is unpack it, whether you have bought, won or otherwise procured a Go! Baby or a Go! wonderful machine.

Now it's time for Part 1 of How to Mark Your Dies with Ebony Love of Love Bug Studios - she is just THE BEST.


Now you can watch Part 2 of How to Mark Your Dies if they are Geometric or Multiples again by Ebony Love:


Here is Part 3 of the series by Ebony Love and this time it's for Appliques:


Before you start cutting anything you really must watch this video by Ebony Love (yes I am A HUGE fan of her's) on how to get straight cuts for your new Accuquilt G! Baby or Go! There are actually two videos here and please watch them in order:




So the first thing I did was go and try and buy myself a couple of silver sharpies. Could I get them? NO WAY!!! Nobody in this darn country I have adopted had any so I looked at them all and decided to buy these because they would give me the widest choice of colors. I have marked my first die board and here are some pictures to show you:

 These are the Sharpies I bought yesterday and as you can see

I have a choice of four colors to use

 This is the die before I marked it

And this is it after.  As you can see

I chose Green first but that didn't work too well

so, I decided to use the pink which worked way better.

I still would have preferred Silver!!!

Until tomorrow when I, hopefully, will have enough energy to iron some fabric and actually use my new Go! Baby!!! I have discovered ironing sitting down since I can't stand and do it.  And I am sure that this new toy of mine will make my quilting come alive as it won't matter at all how much I am shaking when I use the GO! Baby!!  Such is life with Multiple Sclerosis!!!  Each day brings something else exciting and new!  Okay so I'm being sarcastic but it sure beats being self pitying that's for sure.  PMA all the way!  That's for the uninitiated Positive Mental Attitude - well it's gotten me through the past 20 years and will continue to get me past the next 20 at least and quilting all the way. 

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

THE BEST NEWS

Hi All,


I have the best news to share with you and that new is that I got a .... wait for it ...

Accuquilt Baby Go with three dies.  The link HERE will take you to the purchase an Accuquilt Baby Go page and if you click on the link above, it will take you the that page but even better is there are two tabs on the left hand side of that page and if you click on the Video tab it will take you to a video telling you all about this amazing machine.  Also right now if you buy a Baby Go Accuquilt are giving away totally free (not that I got them but this is now and that was then) the Alex Anderson Die Set worth $139.97 so in fact you would only be paying for the Dies and not the Baby Go at all.  Now how exciting is that!!!

I spent ages choosing my dies but I did it in the end and I chose these three dies

Go! Triangles in a Square-3" Finished

Please click HERE to see the accompanying video of that these dies can do

Go! Drunkards Path-3 1/2"

Please click HERE to see the link to the videos for this die

and finally I chose this set

Go! Value Die Set

Please click HERE to go and see what this lot can do

Okay I have the machine and the dies so what next you ask?  Well me being me I need to know all the ins and outs of how to use this machine without destroying anything.  So I headed to You Tube and found the most amazing videos and tomorrow please come back because I am going to share them all with you.  

And before the end of this week I am going to be making a Tutorial on how I did with it and what I managed to make.  I am just so excited I can't tell you.  So please keep on coming back because before too long I'm going to be having an even bigger surprise for everyone.

So until tomorrow ...


Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

I know, know another post in no time at all

Firstly let's talk about following a blog.  I never understood why a condition of so many giveaways was that you followed that particular blog.  But now I know why and I know that over 4,000 people have come on this blog because that's what my counter thingy says, unless of course I've been on here over 4,000 times but I don't think so.  

I would really like to ask a HUGE favor if you are visiting my blog. Would you please become a follower, if you aren't one already,  because as everyone knows although I am American I live in England and would really love to be able to have a huge giveaway here on this blog but in order to be able to get anything (large or small) to give you guys I really need more followers.  SO PLEASE FOLLOW ME and then I can repay you all with great giveaways - that's if anybody but me is actually reading this blog.  But I really hope you are because I love writing it. Okay so maybe I'm just writing it for me to read.  

I don't know if my fellow quilters that read this blog know this but I am a Tweet-A-Holic.  I love Twitter and whilst I am not that old at doing it (okay so I'm old but not in Twitter terms I'm not).  Well to cut a long story short, and I'm not sure who started following who first, but I have been following Kelly Swallow for some time now and her way of patchwork fascinates me to say the least.  Here are some examples of what she does, and it's not what you think at all because it's furniture and absolutely beautiful and she tweets under the name of @patchworkchairs in case you want to follow her on Twitter too.

This is a Chesterfield that she has reupholstered and covered in Patchwork.

What a beauty isn't it.

A Chaise Lounge like you can't see that already

I promise I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs

These two are called Taylor and Burton

Not usually my colors but I do love them 

AND last, but by no means least my favorite of them all

A Tub Chair with a matching Footstool.

I did ask to be her apprentice but she just thought I was funny. Well funny is good :-)  I LOVE being funny and I'm a really good joke teller too - only problem is I only remember a few and have told them for years and think everybody has heard them by now.  Next time I blog I'll tell you my most favorite joke of all time - only problem is every time I tell it by the time it comes to the punchline I am laughing so much, because I know the end, that nobody can understand what I'm saying.  And I've been telling this joke for close on 20 years.

PLEASE PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOW ME BUTTON ON THE

LEFT HAND SIDE AND FOLLOW ME

Until next time ...

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

On my wandering through the web today I found these GREAT things

Too tired to quilt today, bloody MS and no I'm not moaning just stating a fact,  but never too tired to look at quilting or fabric on the web and today this is what I found out that Sharon (Sha) has some great news to share this week but don't know what it is.  But everyone can find out by joining her site or even getting email notifications of when she has posted  at http://craizeecorner.blogspot.com/ which is her blog.

AND I just had to share this video with you all.



I sometimes feel like I'm the only Jewess in the whole world who loves doing things with her hands like stitching and quilting.  So it was especially lovely to find this.  It's just over 3 minutes of lovely quilting and next year (2012) it will be displayed at our Quilt Show in Birmingham which is happening this week if anybody here wants to go. I was but am not now as I can't find anybody to go with me and anyway I'm broke so it wouldn't be much fun as it would be like being in a candy store (sweet shop) without any money to spend EXCEPT WORSE because there will be all that yummy fabric and I could buy any.  Again not moaning - just a fact of life but I am buying a new sewing machine soon.

Until next time ...

Lots of Love Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

Shawna's Having ANOTHER Great Giveaway

As unbelievable as this might sound...

SHAWNA over at 1 Choice 4 Quilting is having another great giveaway.  You can have your choice of either a Jelly Roll or a Layer Cake of one of these three gorgeous but gorgeous fabric packs from Moda.

Meadow Friends for Boys

Meadow Friends for Girls

AND NOW FOR MY FAVORITE

Summer House

Good luck if you enter and you have five chances to win.

Until next time ...
Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

Well I'm back again ...

No pictures but here I am.  Alive and well and off the drug that made me feel so horrid.  Back to normal whatever that is.

So what have I been doing? Absolutely nothing craft wise.  Not even stitching or cutting or sewing on my sewing machine,  but I have been looking a lot on the computer and drooling and have found some truly wonderful things for you all and here is NUMBER ONE!

Madame Samm  (this is Samm's original blog and what a treat to read it is) is having the most amazing giveaways.  The links to her two blogs are on the right hand side of this blog.

Now here is what you have to do:

Now go here and what you have to do is:

1. First go to the link
2. Then on the right hand side of Madame Samm's giveaway blog (which is the one linked above) click on any of the people that have donated giveaways and there are so many to choose from but one has to Sponsor you
3. Go to the Sponsors website and email them asking them to sponsor you
4. Wait for his/her reply saying they will sponsor you - because he or she will trust me because whatever you win she wins too!!  
5. Then on Monday, Wednesday & Friday the giveaway is for a Want To Be Quilter - THAT'S ME
6. On Tuesday and Thursdays it is open to quilters who can actually quilt - THAT'S NOT ME

So much fun and so much is being given away it just isn't true.  In fact the giveaways are happening from August 1, 2011 (that was last Monday and I missed it because birdbrain here didn't understand the directions but you will) until October 29, 2011 so go on TREAT yourself because Madame Samm really is as gorgeous as she is lovely.

Until next time ...

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

I promised you pictures and pictures you shall have

Okay no more whinging from me about my rotten health - I'm bored with it and so must any of you actually reading the rubbish I write.

So I promised  you photos and photos you shall have.  Never sure if the word is photos or pictures. I think photos must be England and pictures American because when I came here a zillion years ago, okay not a zillion but it sure feels like it, Pictures was going o the Movies.  I just get my English and American still mixed up even after all this time here.

I was in an exchange for dolls quilts and I was so so so lucky because this is what I got.  I can't show you the one I made yet because it definitely hasn't been received by the person who is receiving it because I was so late in sending it but I will show you my one when I know it has arrived.  So in the meantime have a look at this beauty:

I cannot express how beautiful this is in real life.

It is just stunning and the quilting is beyond beautiful.  

The quilt was made by Beth Miller and we belong 

to a Group called 'The Misfit Quilters' on Twitter

Here it is on my Lily's dolls on her bed in my house

cause she isn't allowed to take it home.

Trust me it is stunning.  Just click on any of the 

Pictures and you can see a really big picture showing it in all it's beauty.

And Beth also send me this Mug Rug that I adore

and a little Credit Card Holder for being

a little bit late.  

Thank you so much Beth from the bottom of my heart I really really love everything you sent.  Red and turquoise is my new favorite color combination ever since I've seen it.

THANK YOU Beth I just can't thank you enough.  IT IS BEAUTIFUL and yes I'm screaming but it really is something to scream about.

Until next time ...
Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

I have just found THE most exciting thing

This post is a quickie but I will be back tomorrow with photos of THE most awesome Dolls Quilt I received from Beth Miller.

Now on to today.  I was surfing the net, just for a change, and I came upon this site.  It's called Inklingo and is the brainchild of Linda Franz who I had never heard of until this evening.  But trust me she has become my new best friend, or will be once my waxed paper arrives in a few days.

Not only does she give you free designs but Linda also gives you a free 15 minute challenge to complete this star which is included in the free designs:

I know from the Inklingo group on Yahoo that they have had exchanges in the past and I really hope nobody minds my stealing this photo, because it is so beautifully done, and here it is:

This bag was made by Rae Ann and sent to Penny.

I hope you enjoy and use what I have found because for idiots like me this really is the way to go.

Until next time ...
Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH but British in every other way

Sometimes I even surprise ....

... myself with my lack of time.   Don't ask me where it goes because as far as I know it just goes by one day at a time and here we are and it's July!

So what have I done with all this time?  Absolutely bloody nothing.  Not a stitch has been stitched nor needle put to thread or tread to needle for that part.  Yes I haven't been well but that is absolutely no excuse to turn myself into a couch potato which is exactly what has been happening lately and I don't even like television that much.  In fact I used to be scornful of people that spent so much time watching it when there was so much else one could be doing.

So my resolution as of today, well yesterday actually, was I deleted everything on series link (if you are in England and have Sky you will know what this is and probably everywhere else too for that matter) that I don't really really want to watch and is just junk.  You know the stuff I was watching because I was worried I might miss something on the television.  I was never worried before.  My attitude to the TV has always been if I miss it I miss it.  But it changed drastically this year and I DON'T LIKE IT!  So this is going back to how it used to be.  Watching not a lot and being very choosy on what I do watch and NO JUNK.  It was definitely not good.  So that is being cut down big time.

The grands (well the two older ones) stayed last night and we were up at 5:00 a.m. this morning to take my dh to the airport because he went to Germany for the weekend and decided I couldn't be left at home without a car.  I would have been quite happy not to have the car.  I don't like driving anyway!  But I have it and had to drive home from Heathrow Airport - NOT FUN!!!  It was M25 and then M1 home.  I was home by the time DH should have been at the airport.  Talk about Mr. Early!

At least I did something constructive today.  I went into my new sewing room when we got back from the Airport and with the help of Sammy (grandson number 1 who is 11) I got some of the room sorted out.  I have to sort out the rest before I can sew anything and I shall do some more this evening so I can sew to my heart's content tomorrow and show you what I have made.  I bought loads of plastic boxes to make it all neat but loads more has to be moved in the room and DH won't do it until he has cleaned the carpets which WILL be done this week so I shall have some photos to show you of that room before too long.

But for now I'm going to finish this post and go and look at a load of your  posts which I have been neglecting lately because I have this dumb brain that won't let me do anything unless I finish what I am supposed to be doing.  I mean how dumb is that?????

Crazy if you want my honest opinion.  But my brain just won't let me.  So until I have sort of cleared up that room and made something constructive I won't be back.  But I promise it will be this coming week because I want to - not because I have to but because I've told my brain that it is truly mad and I can do something else if I don't want to do what I should be doing.  I have bought so much stuff that it's no good just stroking it - I HAVE TO USE THE CLOTH.  There I've said it out loud.  And I have so much lovely cloth.  So here goes world I'm starting for real and I shall be either:

Quilting by cutting and piecing properly or;
Quilting by Foundation piecing or (yeah that's proper too);
Quilting by Quilt and Go which is also proper

this week and you shall see what I have done.  See you later in the week and ....

Until next time ...

Lots of Love Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH
but British in every other way

I love this blog to bits

I hope you all like my new layout as much as I do, because I LOVE it.

Anyway it's been a week and a half since I last blogged.  I haven't done anything at all because I have had an abscess on one of my teeth for the last four weeks and have been in such pain it honestly has been worse than childbirth and I've had three of them - children that is.

What a pain in the you know where!  I am now on my fourth lot of antibiotics which is the most I have ever had in my entire life.  I don't take them generally but save them for when I really need them because I am allergic to so many.  So I've had two lots of one that I am not allergic to and am about to start on the 2nd lot of the second one that so far I am not allergic to.  The allergy had always turned up the second time I take an antibiotic but as there won't be any gap in taking the 2nd lot of this one maybe it won't happen.  The last time I took any antibiotic was 5 years ago and that was the first lot I took that had absolutely no effect whatsoever.  Before that it wasn't on my records at all and I have been with the same doctor for the past 30 years so you can see how rarely I take them.

I have found out (because somebody told me) that it seems to subside when I am sitting up but when I am in bed and laying down it is just awful so last night I sat up all night and haven't slept at all and my tooth isn't killing me today - yet but tonight I am definitely going to bed.

So what did I do all night.  Well I redid this blog and I really love it because it isn't full of stuff on the sides and top.  And now I am going to show you what I have been up to before a month ago.

All images are clickable to enlarge them.

This is the front of the Pin Cushion I made and 

sent at the end of April if memory serves me right

but I don't think it ever arrived at it's

destination.  I offered to redo another one

but haven't heard which is just as well 

really as I have been in pain - okay

so I am a pain.

And this was the back.  I really loved

making this and would happily make it

something like it again.

This is the first of a lot of blocks I am making

for my elder daughter's birthday.  But I'm afraid she 

shall have to wait and it will be really late as I

have to make some other stuff first - but I'm

sure she will be find with waiting.  I really loved making

this too as it is a quilt as you go and was a lot of fun

and can't wait to make some more of them.

This is the first block I chose to make of 

Ryan & Charlie of 

Patchwork Squared QAL

I think I like it but

I should have stuck with some of 

the colorways they chose.

The other things that have changed in this blog is there are lots more icons on both sides of the blog that lead to really really interesting places and I hope you like seeing them as much as I do.  So please click on them because they all take you somewhere really special.

So that's about it from me for today except to say I will be back a lot sooner than I have been posting and I have really missed you all.

Lots of Love 

Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH
But British in EVERY other way

And the Winner is

Sorry I'm late announcing the winner of this competition.  It is :::drumroll please:::

Catherine otherwise known as Bumpkin Bears and I have emailed her for her snail mail name and address so I can post the magazine to her.

I will be back real soon with a real blog post - you know one with pictures in it and stuff I have stitched.

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH
but British in every other way

And Another GIVEAWAY

I know and it's only been a week.  How cool is this?!?

Anyway onto business.  I have extended my giveaway by another week because so far only three people have entered it.  So sad.   Come on people enter it in the posting below this one please.  Here's a LINK to my measly giveaway.  Well I try.  Yes I know I'm very trying.

Now there is another giveaway.  My friend Shawna, who is THE nicest person on earth, is having a MEGA giveaway and she wants YOU to enter it.  I don't but what the heck she does so I'm doing it.  I mean if you all enter then I won't stand any chance of winning at all and I WANT TO WIN this, but then again I ALWAYS want to win.  This one has some really good stuff, not just a measly GREAT magazine like my giveaway.

All you have to do to enter is click HERE

Good luck to everyone who enters.  Especially ME!!!

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

Gosh I didn't Realise

It's been two whole months since I last wrote on this blog.  I never don't write but unfortunately the MS has really had quite a long ride recently and I have been too tired to do anything much.  No sewing, no quilting, no writing and no quilting and worst of all no blogging.  Whether I'm walking or not has never really bothered me because I have always but always walked slowly.  It's the tiredness I can't control that drives me nuts and is the worst of it insofar as I am concerned and self pity has NEVER been high on my list.

So I started Avonex 5 weeks ago and the side effects were supposed to be not nice.  I didn't get any of them at all until this week when the side effects struck with force.  Two hours after I gave myself the injection I started to shiver and feel hot and cold and just like flu.  So do I blame it on the Avonex.  No not really.  I blame it on my HUGE mouth.  I was so busy bragging how I didn't get the side effects and that's why I blame my mouth.

Anyway enough about that.  I will take some photos of lots of things soon but in the meantime I have a competition for you all.  I bought one too many of the new magazine here so I am offering it to one of you. All you have to do is leave a comment here - I hate it when you have to jump through hoops to win something.  Doesn't matter where you are but if you would like to put a comment on your blog about this giveaway I would be really grateful but you don't have to.

Without further ado is a photo of the front cover of this magazine which I have to say is the best thing to come out of England in a very long time in the quilting/crafting world as usually I really don't like English magazines.

This competition ends on 17th of June. 

So until next time 

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

P.S.  I live in the U.K. but will mail this to anywhere in the world.

I haven't been posting anywhere and this is why

Well firstly I had a major MS attack, but I usually just learn to live with whatever it throws one way or another.  

But that was by far not the worst of it.  You see my new Neurologist put me on new pills.  I was to take 2 daily, one in the morning and one in the evening the first week leading up to 8 daily by the 4th week - 2 morning and 2 evening.  

I really started to feel strange, really strange for me.  Everywhere was itchy and I thought it was the Diabetes, I was terribly tired and again I thought okay it's either the MS or the Diabetes (which I control with pills - no big deal), but I began to feel really depressed and couldn't for the life of me leave the house even if I wanted to.  I didn't want to do anything, go anywhere, see anyone, or even talk to anybody on the phone. 

Then last week - 7 weeks after the start of the wonder pills that were going to cure the pain the MS caused, I was really ready to commit suicide.  All my daughters kept on saying was you must go to the doctor and get something and I kept on refusing until last Tuesday (the 22nd I think) it was so bad that I phoned (lucky for us we have NHS and I have brilliant doctor) and she couldn't see me that day but saw me the day after but all I kept on thinking was just to end it all.  I know this sounds really dramatic.  So what I finally did was read the leaflet that came with the pills the Neurologist had put me.  

I never read the leaflets of what the side effects might be because I don't want to imagine I have one of them when I don't so I always figure the best way is just not to read them.  Well last Tuesday night (the 22nd of March) I decided to read it and one of the effects was extreme tiredness, another was itchiness, I had even changed my shampoo thinking I had dandruff all of a sudden, and one of the last ones was severe depression leading to suicide.  

So at last I knew what had caused it so even though I was meant to take 4 pills that Tuesday night I only took one figuring if you had to taper off the medication I should at least take one of them.  Well Wednesday (23rd) when I saw my lovely doctor she took me off them immediately and made me another appointment to see her in a weeks time.  Well I saw her yesterday and she said in all the years she had known me she had never seen me in such a state - not even when my younger brother was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer a couple of years ago and I was in a state then, and if I hadn't been better this week I was going to be hospitalized because if it wasn't the medication causing this really bad depression I was in the middle of a nervous breakdown and couldn't be left at home. 

But the difference between last week and this week it totally amazing.  Joanna (doctor) couldn't get over it.  She told me she had never seen me in such pieces before and had prescribed this medication before, not a load of times but a few, and had never seen an effect that I had on them and was really ready to put me in a Psych ward.  But, I was back to  my normal happy smiling self.  Maybe next time I'll read the leaflet that comes with the medication.

So I'm writing this really as a warning to everybody.  When you get new medication read the leaflet that comes with it and if you show any of the side effects it warns you about go back to your doctor immediately.  I will never be so cavalier about leaflets that come with medication and thinking reading the down side of what the medication MIGHT cause will mean it will happen to me.

And this is the reason you haven't heard from me in so long.  I haven't been anywhere, done anything, or gone anywhere and for the first time in my life I had a pity party and felt really sorry for myself which is unusual all by itself.  I generally have no sympathy for others, nor myself, unless of course they are really sick.

So until next time ... 

Lots of Love Patti xxx 

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission - Eleanor Roosevelt


P.S.  The drug I was put on was called Topiramate.  The first drug the Neurologist wanted me to go on was called Gabapentine but my doctor thought it was a bad idea and so I never took it.  The Neurologist then said to take Topiramate and after talking to my doctor I felt I had to take at least one of the medications he recommended or he might have felt what was the point of seeing me if I didn't listen to what he had to say.


ABC New has this to say about both drugs "Patorno said clear differences appeared between the drugs -- gabapentin had 40 percent higher suicide risk compared with topiramate, for example -- but that the overall risk for suicide was low enough that doctors might not pick up on it in their practice." This is only one very small snipped out of the whole article which can be read at the link above.

HELP!!!

Really I need help badly.  It is Lily's (my granddaughter) 8th birthday next Sunday and big mouth here promised her a sewing machine for her birthday.  Okay so buying it is no big deal because they make children's sewing machines for only £30.00

and they are quite sturdy and everything and it is made by John Lewis which is my very favourite store here in England but what on earth can I get an 8 year old to make on her brand new sewing machine?  Please I need ideas.  So please can some of you please please please help me with ideas of what I can buy in the coming week for Lily to make on her brand spanking new sewing machine that only sews in straight lines.

I will be grateful forever.

Lots of Love
Patricia xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

I am still here, sort of

No seriously I am still here and loving quilting.  Not very good at it but getting slightly better.  Sorry I haven't written a post in ages but my MS has really been playing up and I have had some decisions to make.  And I'm really bad at making up my mind at the best of times and thought I had.  But guess what?  Yup I haven't after all.  You see my Neurologist is putting me on Drug Modifying Treatment and I have to choose which drug I want to inject to try and stop this silliness from happening - at least from happing so often.  So do I take the drug that I only have to inject once a week but run the risk of feeling like I have flu for a couple of days each week.  Or!?!  Do I take the other one which I have to inject daily and take the risk of injections site reactions that will make me feel like I've had bee stings and other nasties?  Well I have a just over a week to make up my mind and I daresay I will change it a zillion time - just like I did when I went out for lunch yesterday.  I am so crap at making decisions that I can't even decide what to eat!

Okay on to nicer things.  I have been trying to quilt without a lot of success but I have finished a couple of mug mats which I can't show you because they are winging their way to the States as I type and will share pictures of them they have arrived.

The best news though is that our middle child, not really a child but a grown woman, takes possession of her flat at the end of the month and I am going to have one and a half (the third bedroom really is just a half a room) bedrooms.  The half bedroom I will probably just leave the futon in for the children to sleep on still.  But the other bedroom is going to become my sewing room and have all my stuff in it.  I can't wait.

I need to display all my gorgeous fabrics so I can see them.  I am going to buy a new sewing machine in August when I go with my friend Janice to the Quilting Show in Birmingham (England not Alabama).  So I'm trying to save up for that now.  Also we are not going to have a holiday (aka vacation) this year but instead buy two new TVs and my sewing machine.  It's all very exciting - well for me it is.

As soon as I have the room set up I shall take photos of it and show you.

Lots of Love
Patricia xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

1 Choice 4 Quilting: Sunkissed Giveaway - 4 Gorgeous Yards of Moda Sunkissed by Sweetwater

1 Choice 4 Quilting: Sunkissed Giveaway - 4 Gorgeous Yards of Moda Sunkissed by Sweetwater

Lots of Love

Patti xxx

A New Store Has Opened

There is a wonderful new online shop that has opened and they are having a giveaway and 20% discount and you can find them here

The Shop is called

1 Choice 4 Quilting

and can be found

here

I think the name is so cool and I am really looking forward to shopping there.  So please click on where it says here because the giveaway ends tonight at 8pm EST (that's Eastern Standard Time which is 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time) so get moving and have a look at this new website and do what it says to be entered into their giveaway.

Lots of Love
Patricia xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

Well no good pics this time because ...

... you will never guess who messed up BIG TIME!! Yup I really did.  I stitched all the jelly roll pieces together very carefully, and then THOUGHT I had cut them really carefully.  Guess I wasn't as careful as I thought because hardly anything came out right when I started to stitch the blocks. And this was even after I got the June Tailor Shape Cut Plus Ruler which is meant to be idiot proof.  Wrong!  My problem is I realised last night as I was trying to use another ruler is that I shake now.  How exciting is that!  NOT!  So I've ordered some pads to put under the other rulers to make them not slip when I shake.  Here is the Shape Cut Plus Ruler and it is great:

This second photo shows you how straight and even every cut is

because you put the Rotary Cutter into the slot and away you go

Well that's what is supposed to happen.  But then again they didn't count on me and my shaking MS!  Hope this stops soon.  Lucky for me I have the Relapsing/Remitting kind and I saw my GREAT new Neurologist this morning (I had an appointment with him anyway) and even at the cost to the National Health Service which is anything from £12,000 - £16,000 per annum, after I see the MS Nurse and she gives me all the real information so I can make a really informed decision I can have whatever .  He has also written to my Doctor to suggest another drug that I should take for some of my other symptoms and the good bit on that drug is that a side-effect is IT MAKES YOU LOSE WEIGHT!  YAY.  Although this week I lost 3 1/2 lbs on Weight Watchers.  I decided that I only move from one chair to another chair and don't exercise at all I should be on less points than normal people and so I did it and lost all that weight.  Bet I don't next week but who cares.

Okay getting back to the ruined quilt top, what did I do? I threw the whole lot in the garbage can (ok bin) and ordered the very last Blush Jelly Roll in the country and bought a new White Jelly Roll from one of the best stores in the U.K. and here it is for all my fellow Brits - okay I'm not really a Brit but I have been here an awfully long time.  

The store is called Carole's Crafts but it really is a quilting store and Carole and Roger, who own it,  are just so nice and obliging it just isn't true.  And what's more although they get the new Fabrics a month after the guys in the U.S. on Jelly Rolls they charge more or less the same price as if you bought it in the States but without the shipping charges one has to pay from the States.  And I'm giving you Brits the heads up that if the C&E people decide that you have spent to much, i.e. over £18.00 ($25.00) on a package from the Sates, excluding postage, they can and will charge you 20% VAT + an £8.00 handling fee for charging you the VAT,  Look I don't have a problem with the VAT - no way Jose, but I have a HUGE problem with the damn Handling FEE!  So do give Carole & Roger a go on Jelly Rolls & Layer Cakes.  

I'm going up there next week, they are in Wolverhampton, when I get my new car which does more than my gas guzzler does to the mile (20) and the new one is supposed to do like 55mpg, and if it does 40 I will be over the moon, and Carole is going to, out of the goodness of her heart, give me lessons on cutting etc.  See I told you she was great.

Anyway I've gone on enough for tonight and hopefully after the weekend I will have something to show you for real.

Lots of Love
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

Hi, it's me again

I know it's been a while.  But I've been doing things and I don't do much fast, at least not standing up I don't.  I takes me ages because I can stand for a bit and then I have to sit again for twice as long.  Anyway enough about that.  I have some things to share with you.  Did you say finally???  Umm well yes.

First I won a competition that Micki was running.  Boy was I ever happy.  And this is what she sent and boy did she send a lot.  THANK YOU SO MUCH Micki because I love it alll.

 First is an Irish Quilting Magazine which believe it or not

I have NEVER seen in England and it is truly wonderful

 A Tablemat for Christmas which is just lovely

And I think I will make a Mug Mag for my son-in-law just

like this because I love it so much

 A pot holder which is EXACTLY the right colors

for my kitchen

Anyone would think that Micki had been in my house spying 

because all the colors are completely right.  These are Coasters

which match my living room exactly.

Then she sent me a hat with Ireland on it (yes I know you can see it)

A bar of chocolate which I have still managed to resist - okay only because

it is on the window cill and I had forgotten about it but still I think

it's good.  And finally an Irish Calendar which I shall treasure forever.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING Micki xxx

Now when I started Cross Stitching about 14 years ago I bought loads of things.  I mean every hoop and stretching implement known to man.  I bought, and sold, at least 4 lamps and loads of silk threads on a whim when nothing called for them.  I also bought so much stash you would have thought I would live to be at least 125.  Anyway now with quilting so far I have not wasted one single penny.  Ok I know I have loads of time to do that.  Anyway I bought this, after seeing it on eBay, and then looking for it on the web and seeing that there was a Plus version of it for the same money the one non-Plus version was going for on eBay.  

What is it you ask?  Well it's the June Tailor Shape Cut Plus ruler and it is THE BEST thing I have ever bought.  It is so easy to use (says she before she has put the blocks together and seen how accurate it is) it just made my life much simpler but I did have 16 strip sets to cut into loads.  Out of most strips (apart from the ones I messed up) I cut 17 2 and a half inch strips so that's a load of strips ready to be made into blocks on my beloved sewing machine.  So here goes and have a look at it

You have a Zero line at the bottom and a cutting

line where it says Zero and your (I wanna say angle grinder) but
I have finally remembered it is my Rotary Cutter!

I joined in The Postage Stamp Quilt Along that Natalie is running and here are some photos and thank you Natalie so much for running this as I am really enjoying it.  Well up until now anyway when I have to make the blocks up.  Yes I know I should have done that last week but it has taken me a while to cut up the 2 1/2 inch segments.  I didn't use the fabric that Rachel used because I had bought jelly roll ages ago to make something else and never did so I used that and it is from Moda (of course) and it is by Basic Grey and called Blush.  So here are some photos:

Here are the raw materials.  One Jelly Roll in Blush and one in White

Here are two photos of them cut but not stitched together

into strip sets

(and I forgot to take a photo of them stitched into strip sets - sorry)

Here is where I have cut the 44" x 9 1/2" strips sets

there are loads of them trust me and I have

them together in groups of 

The top group is print/white/print/white/print

The bottom group is white/print/white/print/white 

And now I'm going to be putting them together

again in blocks so

Please wish me luck that I haven't mucked up all this fabric.  If I have no problem because I have another two waiting in reserve in case I have.  But I really hope I haven't.

I am also going to be doing the Bloggers Block-A-Palooza that Quilt Dad is running and today I have ordered most of the fabric for it.  But I need to get some more so hopefully somebody has it in stock.

Until next time

Lots of Love

Patti the displaced Yank xxx

Blimey I Didn't Realize it had been so long

Wow it seems like yesterday but it was actually like 3 weeks ago.  So what have I been doing?  Oh you know this and that.  Made dinner Christmas Day with the help of my darling daughter-in-law and it was great had a houseful and then New Year's Eve came and had just as great a time with great friends in a wonderful new Chinese Restaurant not far from where we live ... if you live near Bushey in Hertfordshire it is called The Imperial Chinese and it is on the A41 opposite the Hilton and the food is to die for.  We made the mistake of ordering set menus and there was much too much to eat.  Never mind we know for next time.


I have started making something and I have pictures - unheard of for me to show things that are not finished but there you go a new, and hopefully improved, me for 2011.


So I have started making a cushion I saw made on a Channel 4 (in the U.K.) program with my heroine in it - Kirsty Allsop.  Now Kirsty makes a few programs, mainly ones about buying the perfect house for people who are searching for them, but last year and this year she got to make THE MOST incredible hand-made things with experts who taught her.  Oh sometimes I wish I was her, okay let's be honest most times I wish I was her because she gets to do these incredible things.  Anyway this year one of the things she learned to do was make a handmade cushion and you can see how she does it right here.  Anyway my version of is isn't completely hand made because I got out my sewing machine after I had purchased the fabric for the backing and the Charm Pack that went with it.  I am too new at this to think I can choose fabrics randomly (all photos are clickable to make bigger IF YOU MUST).  Anyway this was the fabric I chose because I know that the person I am making this for likes autumnal colours (which I don't much):

The Charmpack is called Awesome (well any idiot (including me) can see

that from the darn package) and the backing came from

the same collection by Moda

Then I thought oh I want to put at least one heart on it too so

I went to trusty eBay and bought myself these Heart Stencils so now

I'm all set and ready to go.

Well I stitched the four pieces of the Charm pack that I had chosen together

with one of my cut out hearts.  Now I didn't exactly get it perfect when

stitching the four pieces together but figured oh that's okay I have

the heart to hide it.  Then I made the fatal mistake of thinking I could

stitch the heart on using my sewing machine and what a mess of it I made

so I had to start again

And being the darn perfectionist (I know this doesn't have to be

perfect but it does for me) it came our great and

now I am stitching the hearts on by hand and will show you

what I have made later on in the week.

So until then I will leave you with ...

Lots of Love Patricia xxx
American by birth and MOUTH