A Craftsy Giveaway

As a lot of you know I am a Craftsy addict.  I have either purchased or joined Craftsy Online Free classes and paid for Craftsy Classes over the past year or so.  The very first class was with Jenny Doan who owns Missouri Star Quilting and it was Quilting Quickly and an excellent class it was too.  It gave me the confidence to start to piece to my newest Craftsy class Design It Quilt It with another 12 Quilting and Sewing classes in between.  Yes I really am an addict.

Cindy assumes that you can already piece and want to learn how to quilt your tops. If you are a really brand new enthusiast and you want to learn how to cut and piece without using pre-cuts then I would highly recommend The Craftsy Block of The Month, which is taught by the very talented Amy Gibson. Or if you haven’t learned how to piece and want to quilt a whole cloth quilt this is also the perfect class for you from beginners to those that have quilted but want to improve their quilting skills or just need to learn more than they have been taught. 

You will learn good practical tips on basting, threads, tension (the machine kind!), how to quilt basic designs, how to choose practical designs for your tops, etc. Very important tips are shared on how to get your perfect rhythm and stitch length and how to begin and end your quilting lines.  In fact most things I thought I ‘knew’ I didn’t but I sure do now.  Not only all of this but once you enrol on any Craftsy class it is yours for life – anytime or anywhere on any machine you just sign in to Your Account and there all your classes are and you can watch and re-watch whatever you want from any class you have FOREVER!

I cannot tell you how much I have learnt in Cindy’s’ classes.  It is just amazing from start to finish and even when I looked at an upcoming topic and thought to myself ‘oh I know that’ it was amazing how much I, in fact, did not know.

So now for the giveaway and don’t worry if you don’t win because Craftsy are offering you DESIGN IT QUILT IT ONLY for half price and if I were you I wouldn’t miss this class for anything, but one lucky person is going to get it for 

FREE

and it could be YOU

The GIVEAWAY ends on Sunday the December 2, 2012.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

See you soon
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH
but British in every other way

Blog-hop and giveaway coming soon

I have decided, in my infinate wisdom (okay I'm not really that wise), to enter the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop Party with Giveaways!

From the 10th of December until the 15th you will be able to visit a whole host of blogs and enter a load of giveaways .... but please remember to watch out for mine because the giveaway is going to be awesome.

See you soon
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH

Accuquit and Craftsy

First I would like to welcome all my new followers - how rude of me not to do this before now.  So WELCOME and I do hope you continue to follow me because I love comments and will ALWAYS reply to you.

Let's talk about the first thing in my heading.  I have had the Go! Baby for around a year but because of my MS my arms quit working just about the same time I got it.  But, I have to tell you that the Accuquilt  Go! Baby is totally amazing and what's more 

Are having a SALE

that is lasting 8 whole days.  I have only just started quilting after looking at You Tube and Craftsy for a while.  Okay it's been more than a while - it's been 2 years but my arms are now working again so I can piece now thanks in whole to the Go! Baby and I have four cutters (they used to be called dies) and I have cut some hexagons and I'm currently hand sewing them.

The Go! Baby which if you live in the U.S. is now
$50.00 cheaper so do yourself a favor and buy it
because I promise you IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

I have to tell you that I so couldn't have done this if I didn't have the Go! Baby and and if I could afford it I would so buy the:

The Go! Baby 1 1/2" Strip Cutter
because Moda have stopped
making them :-(

AND

The Go! Baby Quarter Square 4" Finished Triangle
because it would just be AMAZING

Unfortunately in England the stores ALWAYS charge £s for $s - one of my pet peeves!!!  That and the fact that if you spend more than £16.00 on something you buy from the US they charge you the VAT - no problem with that at all because if I buy it here I have to pay it, but I have a huge problem with the flat fee of £8.00 they charge for charging the VAT (Value Added Tax otherwise known as just Tax).  That really P's me off.  So if anybody wants to buy me a Christmas or Chanukah present you know exactly what I want.  Not expecting much from this side of the pond because they are so expensive here in England and our darling son and daughter-in-law gave us a wonderful vacation as a present and I think that covered all things this year - birthdays, Chanukmas (that's Christmas and Chanukah combined) and our anniversary which was last week.  We have been married for an awful lot of years.

Anyway enough of my moaning and these are the 4 dies I have at the moment:-

Go! Value Die
which gives you a
4 1/2" Square
2 1/2" Triangles
2 1/2" Square

Go! Baby Drunkards Path 3 1/2" Finished

Go! Triangles in a Square
Finished Sizes are 3" of both

Go! Baby Hexagons
with finished sized of:
2", 3" and 5"
and this die I bought here in England

To end with Accuquilt !Go Baby for the time being I have to tell you that it is my most favorite thing that I own.  I LOVE IT!!!  And it has made quilting possible for me because I still can't stand and cut and using the Accuquilt Go! Baby means that I can quilt.

Now about Craftsy and me.  I joined 1 class on Craftsy when Craftsy was called something else, Sympoziam I think.  I have been trying to quilt for around 2 years I think.  I went to a class at my not-so-local quilt store first and found it pretty useless to be honest.  First I couldn't see what the teacher was trying to teach because (a) I'm vertically challenged and (b) I have MS and can't stand for very long and whatever she demonstrated was on the small high table and let's just say I learned virtually nothing and was quite despondent about it and if I hadn't bought some much stuff I might have just given up.

I know I learn better if I either read about it or see it demonstrated and got my first class from a blot (sorry can't remember who's) for Craftsy half price - it was the Jenny Doan (Jenny is from Missouri Star Quilt Company) class which is called Quilting Quilty. I thought hey that's for me for sure.

So I joined that class and quickly thereafter joined Quilting Quickly II and I have become quite addicted to these classes to say the least and will be giving one away shortly so keep watching because it will be within the next week or so.

Right, let's get back to what I was saying.  Craftsy have one full free classe for quilters and it is called Block of the Month and has run since January of this year and is now finished but it will always be there and Amy Gibson who has a blog gives this first full free class that is suitable from a Beginner to anybody.  So if you are just starting quilting go and sign up for it - it costs you absolutely nothing and I have saved this class and Amy is, as are most of the tutors, totally amazing.  This class is called So please do go and have a look at what Craftsy has to offer I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

See you soon
Patti xxx
American by birth and MOUTH
but British in every other way

I Was Only Asking Last Week ...

about what was the best way to baste a quilt.  Whether I should use those bendy safety pins or that spray glue stuff before I quilt my quilt.  Yes I am going to quilt it myself once I have made the top that is.  But I have to clear up my sewing room first so that I can get in there and actually cut so I can sew.

Then I came upon this via my Twitter pal who is also a GREAT designer and person and I love her fabric to pieces.  So who is she you ask?  Well it's BariJ.  Anyway she found this online and I'm sharing it with you because I think it is such an awesome way to baste a quit without any fuss or bother.

What is it you ask?  It's this, and this is Part 1 and the woman who is so clever to do this is Sharon Schamber and I have linked her name to her website because she does all kinds of classes in the USA you lucky people you.  But this one is absolutely amazing.

and here is Part 2 albeit not in the middle of the screen sorry.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.  Now all I have to do is find out where to get these bars from in England and I'll be home and dry and wont have to scramble on the floor which wouldn't be easy that's for sure.

So until next time
Patti xxx

And the WINNER is...

Well it's time to announce the winner of my giveaway.  So without further ado the winner of this giveaway is

List Randomizer

There were 45 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. 44
2. 26
3. 30
4. 34

Now I just have to go and see who number 44 is so, hold on I'll be right back.  Number 44 your time is up and your name is:

Lisa14 November 2012 04:30

I love Simply Color, looks like she has most of them. I like them all it will be my next oops I went shopping honey!

I will write to Lisa and let her know.  Come back next week because I'm going to have another giveaway.     Plus I can't believe it I got the numbers to work - well if I didn't somebody did - maybe it was the cleaning fairy that escaped from my house, and I'm just so happy about it because it means I won't have to count anymore.

Until next time ....

Hugs

Patti xxx

A GIVEAWAY + things I've seen

I promised you guys another giveaway and there is one at the bottom of this post and trust me it's good.  Not just good but GREAT and it has been sponsered by Dina (dot com website) who owns Spiceberry Cottage (Etsy Store) with her lovely daughter.  So read this and you are going to be so surprised by what this lovely lady is offereing my readers and followers.

I don't know about any of you but I tend to subscribe to blogs by having their updated emailed to me.  It's because I don't want to miss anything and I also have a list of Blogs that truly inspire me.  Anyway to cut a long story short I received an email yesterday from Lee who's blog is called Freshly Pieced and Lee is involved in a new Quilting Bee and is sending out

these charm squares for her quilt top

and I immediately loved the colors she has chosen.  They are just so yummy but I thought to my I wonder what kind of block she is going to make out of them. I scrolled down a bit and

this is what Lee is going to have made from her squares

then I scrolled further down and Lee had a WIP Wednesday load of small pictures which led to other blogs that had sent her what they were working on.  I didn't get very far because at the end of the second row I spotted this

and I have loved this pattern since I first saw a different version by Orla Kiely 

anyway this one has been made by Tracey Jay Quilts  where I found out why she was making this quilt and how it was being made so please go and have a look.  

I'm making a block for this will you??  Don't forget Tracey Jay Quilts

Then I went to another website.  I think I got there via The Long Weekend group I am in.  Anyway the blog is called Sewing by Stephanie where I found these lovelies:

aren't they just gorgeous.  Go on, you know you want to, go and visit Stephanie's Blog it's full of yummy things and links to yummy places too.

Then today I got another email from Debbie whose blog is called A Quilter's Table and Debbie has already finished The Weekender Bag and I wanted to end with this because I sort of started with it and here is one that has been completed in a completely different way and I LOVE IT

In fact I love everything I have shown you on here or else I wouldn't have bothered.

Now for the giveaway.  This giveaway is given by the very lovely Dina who is Spiceberry Cottage and I really thank you Dina for doing this from the bottom of my heart.

What do you have to do:

1. Become a Follower of My Blog
2. Go and visit Dina at both her website and her Etsy store and come back and leave me a comment of what you would buy from her
3. Sorry this is only open to the USA but if you don't live there and you still want to enter just offer Dina to pay the postage costs (in your comment) and I'm sure there won't be a problem

FRESHCUT by Heather Bailey 6" Charm Pack 

Gypsy Caravan Amy Butler Stash

 Charm Pack - Thirty 6" Squares

Dena Designs London Charm Packs - 

Set of 30 six inch squares

If you can I would really appreciate it if you, if there is a you, putting a small thing on your blog about this giveaway please.  If you do please leave me another comment letting me know for your third chance of winning these great fabrics.

So this is not one, not two but THREE 6" square charm packs.  Wish I could enter but I can't there you go.  Good luck to all that enter.

I almost forgot the competition ends on the 14th November 2012.

Until next time

Patti xxx