I Learned A Bit About Blogger

Mooching around looking at blogs the past couple of evenings I found a few new things about Blogger, one of which I'm using for this post.  The first thing on Mai-Britt's blog was about the Updated Editor, which has more features than the old editor and following the instructions was easy to do.

Another thing that I've found it that pages can be added to the blog and that up to 10 of these can be added.  I thought (initially) that I'd call mine Non Quilting Photos, pretty boring but I can't thing of an original title at the moment.  I'll put some of the pics of when I've been out and about which are, well, non quilty.  (Got me so far?).  It'll be useful to add pages on other subjects without having to create a whole new blog.  That discovery I found on an artist site Making A Mark, when I read this blog Serendipity Patchwork.

There was a bit lurking at the top of my posts on Blogger asking if I want to be emailed with changes on Blogger.  Already I've found the "links" on this post easier to attach and can even test to see if they work before posting. But for now I might try putting a Non quilty photo on my non quilty page.

Postcards sent, received and made

I've recently done a postcard swap with Janet from Barnsley, who hasn't made postcards before and received her lovely card last week with her lovely hand dyed fabric. I sent one to her and here's pics of both our postcards below.

This is Janet's to me
This is mine to Janet
I've made some for a challenge for the BQL postcard group which is Drunkard's Path block and here's a pic of the four though I've only got 3 to send out. So the fourth may go into my sample book as I keep a few samples of postcards I make.
Playing around with the combination of shapes was fun. The two at the bottom are the same combination but the effect of the reversed colourways make them look different.

Treating myself

The past week has been indulgent. There have been 2 books (non-quilting - I do read other books!) and have treated myself - the new Jack Sheffield book - Village Teacher and the latest Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency book - Teatime for the Traditionally Built. Of course I did also have to buy a quilt book too and this was the new Gwen Marston Liberated Quilting book. I said in the new year that I was going to get more liberated, just need time to practice. Oh, yes I also bought a puzzle game for my DS.

Whilst shopping on Saturday at the supermarket, lots of people were buying Valentines gifts, but David and I don't go in for that at all. As there were some lovely tulips there I indulged in buying a lovely purple bunch. They are really gorgeous, love the colour. Later in the day I treated myself once more and bought some magazines (although one was a slimming one - ahem).

I also have some news on the job front. I went for an interview last Thursday at a bakery company in Doncaster and got the job! My contract was soon to finish at Wakefield Council so I was pleased that I could go from one job into another and I start the new job on 1st March. A bit sad to leave the Council as I've been there for 8 months and made a few friends, but I feel this is now time to move on.

Quilty Day

I was looking forward to the second workshop with Phillipa Naylor yesterday and like the last time, 2 weeks ago I was not disappointed. She is a really enthusiastic teacher and again learned quite a bit, this time about free machine quilting and later piping and binding. The photos show the samples of the free machining which I would have happily stayed all day playing with. The tan sample also shows the left edge with the piping attached, although it can't be easily seen because of the patterned fabric. The right shows the attached blue border.The blue piece below was more free machine practice. Once the feathers were demonstrated show how easy they were I just wanted to keep going.

I really enjoyed the day and it's fantastic to get a whole day quilting without other distractions. When I got home I found that the Region 4 (Dorset, Devon & Cornwall) Quilters Guild Newsletter was in the post and it was good to read about what's been going on back home in Dorset.
To end the day, David and I didn't fancy cooking so went out for a fish and chip dinner in Wakefield. A good end to a lovely day, in spite of the grim weather!I almost forgot to post these on the blog. In the BQL postcard group there is a birthday swap going on through this year and those who had birthdays in January, Janet (another Janet) and Lesley were the recipients of the above cards. Janet wanted a pink card and I couldn't think of anything pink at the time other than pink champagne. So there it is with the words "pink fizz" and the fizzy bits with sparkly machine thread and some glitter glue.