My Very First Award ...

... for this blog.  I am so excited to have received this.  I have been chosen by Giles to receive a Liebster Award from the Touch and Sew Blog and you can see the post here.

The award is for blogs with less than 200 followers, and the recipient should pass the award on to 5 more bloggers.  I have to tell you how hard this was because so many of the blogs I follow have zillions of followers and one or two of my recipients will be there with another one or two followers.  But I have really loved following these 5 blogs, as well as all the others I follow which are so inspirational, and one or two of them have become great friends and they all always totally entertain me though I don't always comment on their blogs I just wanted you all to know how much I love them. This list is absolutely in no particular order it just is

Sami's Quilts & Crafts

Lana

Justine

LynneUSA

Linda

Liebster Conventions:
*Thank your award presenter on your blog {thanks Giles} - done
*Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award - done
*Copy and paste the award to your blog - done
*Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer then 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognized - done
*Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog - done

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

I really hate whinging

so I won't.  But my stitching room is still the dump it was before and I can't get into there to sew yet.  However there will be some improvement.  The huge bed is going out of the litte room where you can't even shut the door cause the bed takes up practically the whole room.

So, DH's junk and all our extra dining room chairs will go back into the small room and be a junk room again instead of my room being the junk room but it isn't going to happen overnight but it will happen fast enough for me to be able to cut and sew on my machine which I am so missing.

So what have I been doing?  I've been in bed with real flu this time instead of the pretend kind the damn meds gave me.  I have been reading on my Kindle as well as making a new friend via Twitter.

I had heard about the Elm Creek books and wondered if you had to read them in order so I asked and he said you do.  So I looked on Amazon and found the first book the night before last.  It's this one:

This is one of the best books I have read EVER!!!  Not only is it a GREAT read there are THE best quilting tips in there I have read in any book (and I have loads trust me).  In fact it was so great that I have ordered one of Jennifer Chiaverini's quilting books from them as she is a master quilter.   This is the first book and it's called "The Quilter's Apprentice" (sorry this is the British link to Amazon).  A lovely read and so instructional as well.  I read it until 3 a.m. Thursday morning and woke up at around mid-day that day and started again around an hour later and finished it at 5p.m. yesterday.  I am now starting the second book.  I can see this being a really expensive month bookwise as they aren't cheap at around £5.00 each on the Kindle.  So thanks a lot Giles but I do love them.

Now before I leave you all for today I would be so grateful if somebody could please remember who made a spotty (or dotty) quilt around a year ago.  I loved it an so did my Grandson and I would love to make it for him for his next birthday but I can't find it anywhere.  I probably saved it on my old computer but as that was stolen and stupid here didn't back it up as regularly as she should have it isn't there.  Please help me if you can.

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

A Real Quilting Post for My Fellow Brits

I was talking to one of my followers on Twitter yesterday and she Tweeted that she really wanted to learn how to quilt.  I said I would email her with some suggestions and that lead me to quite a long email to her and I figured I would share with you all what I said to her as if you are a new quilter, and you live in the U.K., you would probably find what I am sharing hopefully useful.

When I started to quilt, or try to quit, I was quite angry about the price of fabric in this country as in the States pay the same in Dollars, or less, as we do in Pounds.  This is one of my pet peeves and always has been - well for the past 15 years anyway.  No I have not been quilting for 15 years, I started out Cross Stitching and one of the first kits I wanted was made by a company called Shepherds Bush and it was over £60.00 and when I looked at their website online I found out that they were selling the same thing for $60.00.

Earth by Shepherds Bush Printworks

was what my DH bought for me

I never finished it but sold it half finished on eBay many years ago

I phoned them up and asked if they would mail their kits to England and they confirmed that they would.  At that time we were not charged VAT or the dreaded Handling Charge.  Now the Handling Charge is really what annoys me too because no matter how much the VAT is, or was, there is a standard Handling Charge of £8.00.  Unfortunately we are now routinely charged this if what you are importing from anywhere is worth more than $25.00.  Which makes buying anything from the States putting the postage fee, the VAT and the Handling Fee together really not worth while most of the time.

So I started looking for stores in the U.K. where I could purchase what I wanted reasonably and not pay £s for $s.

The other thing is because quilting is mainly an American hobby all measurements are in inches.  So those of us that are old enough to remember using inches it's easy peasy though not as precise of cms and mms.

So here is what I wrote to Sue:

Firstly there are various ways you can quilt.  You can measure and cut out with scissors (takes too long and is not precise enough), you can cut using rulers and you can Paper Piece.  Because I have MS and tend to shake a bit, and I have tried everything and every way of quilting I find paper piecing to be the best way for me.  Now like anything I have done I have to have everything before I start so I make loads of mistakes in what I buy.  

The three things you will need are:

a 6" x 12" Ruler 

and no I do not work or have any association with Creative Grids

I am just a very happy customer

One of the Internationally famous quilters said that she could manage on a desert island with just this one Ruler.  It really is a great ruler but I also find I need other rulers, look I alway buy too much stuff anyway, like the 12 1/2" square ruler to make sure that my 12 1/2" blocks are square and measure exactly 12 1/2" round. 

A 45mm Rotary Cutter

A Self-Healing A1 Cutting Mat

don't buy a smaller one because you will

waste your money.  A1 is the largest mat

Hopefully this will save you loads of money.  QUILTING IS NOT A CHEAP HOBBY!

But it is loads of fun.

Creative Grids do sell a combined kit of things you need to start quilting.

Over the past few years Moda and other fabric manufacturers have followed suit, have brought out fabric lines cut for you, either in strips the LOF (length of fabric) and called Jelly Rolls (because in the States you buy candy called Jelly Rolls and they are wound up just like these are), Turnovers (which are cut triangles), Layer Cakes (which are 10" squares) and Charm Packs (5" square which I always want to call Cupcakes and don't ask me why because I just don't know).  

Now if you buy any of these pre-cuts and are intending on using  a solid color with it I highly recommend that you purchase a solid color pre-cut the same as the pre-cut whatever you are buying at the same time as all of Moda's ready cuts are cut with pinking shears (or a pinking shear kind of machine) 

For example, if think you can use a metre of white fabric and cut it into 2 1/2" strips to work with it doesn't work trust me I've tried.  I now buy white from Moda  ready cut as these really work no matter what I'm using of their ready cuts and I am not even that keen on their solids preferring Kona solids much more as Kona is a thicker cotton but not too thick.  I am not going to give you loads of sites to go to but just a few and the rest you can see on my Quilting blog including great tutorials I've found along the way.

These are the best sites I have found so far. 

http://www.craftsy.com/ - this website has classes that are really great.  You can download their BOM (that's Block of the Month) class for free right now so I would do that at no cost and the teacher is great.  I have bought three of their classes and there is a new one about Paper Piecing that I want but shall have to wait for.

http://creativegrids.com/ - this is the best site to buy rulers from and they are in England and don't charge anything for postage or packing.  I would recommend that you only purchase their rulers as they are non-slip and that makes a huge difference when cutting fabric

http://www.fatquarterly.com/ - This is the ONLY magazine worth buying.  It's online and quite wonderful and British mainly.  You can buy back issues if you want or not as you wish but it really is worth having.

http://www.quiltdirect.co.uk/index.html - this is another British site which is a really great place to shop.  Their prices are very competitive.

http://www.simplysolids.co.uk/ - another British site.  This time for solid fabrics and sometimes not.  No Pounds for Dollars on this site which drives me nuts.

http://www.patchworkcorner.co.uk/ is my local Quilting store and I go there rather than shop online.  Jenny, the owner,  is really nice.

http://www.fancymoon.co.uk/new-in.html - another British site.  If you are wondering why I shop in the UK so much when they always charge in £'s what the $ price would be it's because by the time you have paid the postage and if you spend more than $25.00 the post office will charge you 20% VAT (no big deal) but on top of that they will charge you £8.00 handling fee (which is a HUGE deal as far as I am concerned).

http://www.fatquartershop.com/ - this is my very favorite store of them all.  I have joined their Block of the Month clubs a few times over the years and they are really terrific.  The really great thing about this American site for joining is the Blocks of the Month never cost more than $25.00 so you are safe from the Post Office.

I have reserved everything this year from The Fat Quarterly Shop in the States because last year I waited too long for the finishing kit and couldn't buy one.  This is the funnest way I know to quilt.  You get one block a month to cut and stitch and everything is explained beautifully.


I also buy from Etsy once in a while but am always careful I don't buy more than $25.00 worth.

There are other Quilting stores you can find on Google you don't just have to take my word for it.

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask me and I will do my best to answer even though I'm much better with the academics of quilting than actually doing it.  I have yet to succeed making a whole quilt top.  All I have to do is clear up DH's mess that he's made of my sewing room and I can get started.  Hopefully this virus will be better tomorrow than it's been today so I can go in there and get going.  I'm dying to quilt.

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

Blimey it's been over a month AGAIN

I didn't realise at all that it's been so long AGAIN!!!

Do you like my Britishness of saying Blimey?  It's one of my favorite words but NOT my very favorite which is B*llocks which covers everything and I'm very fond of saying as all my friends know so I figured you should know this too.  The best thing about b*llocks is the Yanks have absolutely no idea what it means.  See I told you I was more British than American now!

So what's been happening over the past month you ask.  Well nothing much to be honest.  Drugs are dreadful still so a couple of weeks ago I stopped it.  I have lost almost a year of my life thanks to those darn drugs.  Look I've had MS for a very very long time without any drugs.  I was told I could chose the one I wanted and woud you believe I chose the one I always swore I would never go on.  What made me decide on that one?  I only had to inject once weekly with it.  How dumb was I!!!  The side effects were too much to bear so I stopped it.  The my neurologist put me on the same drug but this time it was injectable 3 times a week in much lower doses.  I went on this one in July and now in February guess what?  Same side effects but worse because as well as all the other ones I had hot flushes as well.  Look I had a total hysterectomy 20 years ago and already went through the change with hot flushes and didn't need or want them again. So I've been off it for two weeks and everything is normal (for me anyway) again.

Now if him who mustn't been obeyed (known affectionately as DH) would clear his crap (otherwise known as washing (of the clean variety) and other stuff) out of my sewing room which is now a junk room I could sew again.  And I so want to finally sew again.  I was meant to be out all day tomorrow but as I have a virus that's going round and I feel a bit better today tomorrow is going to be the day we clear out my sewing room and get it ready for me to stitch in again.  I really really miss sewing.  So watch this space.

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

And about time too I hear you say ...

Hi,


Well it's been a really really long time. But I think I'm finally back to you all.  I have missed blogging and stitching and quilting and every other thing I did to keep myself out of mischief.  And I'm not exactly telling the truth about no photos because here I am going to introduce the newest member of our family and her name is Chloe Rachael.  Chloe was born on November 8, 2011 weighing in at 5lbs 15ozs and is the lovely daughter of our son James and his very lovely wife Danielle and a little sister for Oliver who is almost 2 1/2.

James, Danielle, Oli +

Chloe in Mummy's Tummy at

Peppa Pig World

(forget the girl at the front - no idea who she is -

well maybe she's Illana - Danielle's best bud? Of course it's

Illana - I'm just nuts so please don't forget her because she's lovely

AND Illana is now pregnant with Nos. 2 and 3 - TWINS)

Chloe was crying so Oliver said,"maybe croey 

(Chloe) wants car" well it seemed to have worked cause she stopped crying

The next day he gave her a plastic plant pot with a fake flower in it.

He is just too cute for words

Oli at Winter Wonderland here in London

last week.

If you say to him 'You are gorgeous' his reply is always

'No I Oli, I NOT gorgeous!'

But alas I had a Multiple Sclerosis attack like I haven't had in years and years and it just went on and on on driving me to distraction and not allowing me to do anything but become a couch potato.  So much time and so much television.  Hands didn't work and arms weren't much good - see I'm not clumsy I have bloody MS!  Legs don't work that well at the best of times and my eyes were pretty cr*p too!


Life didn't stop completely.  Because of my wonderful husband who can cook by instruction (I sit in the Living Room telling him exactly what to do) so we had people round for dinner here quite often - well at the weekends anyway and we had Christmas lunch here too as well as Boxing Day Dinner.


Our eldest made the chicken soup which was really really good to start with and then my DH did the made the Turkey and even made my usual stuffing plus different (non-onion) stuffing for my DD#2 and our DDIL who both have Crohns disease.  So quite a bit of stuffing went into the bird and the non-onion one went into tin foil like a roll thingy.  We had Roasted Vegetables with our main course which was courtesy of Marks & Spencer as well as the Deserts none of which are shown here because they were especially made for Christmas.  If you live in the U.K. you know that you will get the best fruit and vegetables from Marks & Spencer and Waitrose.  I got the yummiest Christmas Pudding I have ever tasted and it was a veggie one too as everything has to be Kosher here but boy was it good.  I also got this chocolate and cherry cake thing (I don't like Chocolate anymore - go figure) and finally we had loads of yummy fresh fruit on the table.  It was lovely, perfect in fact except I announced that next year we are going out for lunch!!!


Boxing Day Larry (DH) made chicken pieces - via instructions and we had Chopped Liver and Egg & Onion to start, followed by Roast Chicken, Roast Potatoes and Veg with i can't remember what for desert and New Year's Eve we went out for dinner to a Chinese Restaurant which was lovely.  So all in all a good Christmas and New Year was had by all.


Next week I will hopefully be well enough to start cutting and sewing again so there will be photos of stuff that you might (not me) like better than these photos.  My very best thing is being a Grandma - I just Love it to pieces.


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

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