Merry Christmas to you all

Free-Motion Quilting Challenge

Before I greet you, to take somewhat of a break from writing our blog and obviously to rest a little.  I'd like to leave you with something to think about for the new year.

Now you might know I do love to free-motion.  I would much rather skip the piecing process if I can only get to do the free-motion work.

Sewcalgal has a free-motion challenge starting in 2012 and in block of the month style, it promises to teach you to do this.

You can pledge to participate in this, see how your fellow participants are doing, post photos or just do it to improve your own skills.

To read more or to take the pledge, click HERE

May you have a blessed festive season and the New Year one to remember for years to come.  I should be back posting mid January 2012.

Coin Purse or Thimble Holder

The worst part about getting older for me is the fact that I get slower.  Way back when I would say AND do something like "Today I'm going to sort out all the cupboards in my house."  Now I'd say "Today I'm going to TRY and sort out my bathroom cupboard" and half the time it would not be finished in a day.

Okay, so way back when I envied ladies that always had a gift ready for any occasion (my mother!!).  When invited to a barbecue, dinner, tea or whatever they'd quickly dig into the gift drawer to find something appropriate to take to the hostess or friend.  My wish to be like that 'one day', stayed a wish and getting slower by the day, I guess it will stay that way.

When I saw this tutorial I thought of my moms' gift drawer and I could see how she'd make and have these ready for a sudden occasion.

So to all the organized ladies out there, this one is for you.  Click HERE to find the tutorial.

And the winner is........

I promised to draw the winner of our blog give-away today, so after only receiving 4 comments, here it goes.  To be fair, I used a random number generator I found on Google here to pick a number between 1 and 4 and this was the result.

The person to leave the second comment on this post was Natasha van Zijl from the Rotary Cutters group.

This was the first photo of Natasha that I could find on my computer and this lady is at this stage still totally unaware of her win.  So I guess I better phone her quickly.

Congratulations Natasha!!

Christmas tree made from fabric scraps

Now look at this beaut offered as a free tutorail to us by Teresa from "My Patchwork" blog.

Geez, some people simply are born creative.  Find this tutorial by clicking HERE.

Our first blog give-away

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  Remember my post on 25 September of this year?  Don't recall, then take a look at it again HERE

I promised a blog give-away to any of the members of the ORANJE QUILTERS' GUILD who leaves a comment to this post.

Now this is the lovely gift given to me by Karin de Villiers to give to one of our members commenting on this post.

If you've never quilted with these gloves I can guarantee you it is a MUST have and if you already use them, you'll understand why this is such a lovely gift.

So try your luck and treat yourself to an early Christmas gift by leaving a comment.  You can simply say that you'd like to win or tell me why you'd like to win and I will do a random draw this Friday, 9 December 2011.

What a pity I can't enter myself!!

Elephant Softie tutorial

Ah! ain't this cute?  Watch me, once our 2013 National Quilt Festival is over I am going to reread our blog and actually make most of these pretties I share with you.

Won't this just make the sweetest gift for any little one?  Okay, now I have myself worried here..... I don't even like 'little ones'.  Old age getting to me?

This tutorial is by Jessica Christian over at Riley Blake Designs and you can find it by clicking HERE.