Happy Halloween

This is just a quick note to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween. I'm afraid I've been very quiet of late, with not much to talk about. We had to rush my Mother to hospital a week ago, and things have been very stressful around here. Needless to say I haven't got much stitching done! It's a good thing I'd planned on being 2 or 3 months ahead of everybody else. Mom is still in hospital, and they're planning on doing some more tests, but I really hope I can bring her home next week.

Hazel B of http://hazel-sewcrazy.blogspot.com/ sent me a photo of her completed October block on October 16th! I couldn't believe how quickly she got it done, and it looks wonderful.



Jennifer of http://stitchanything.blogspot.com/ has started a Flickr group for "Sweet Nostalgia" so anyone who is interested can post photos of their blocks . I think this is a wonderful idea and will be posting my photos as soon as things settle down here. You can find the link to the group here http://www.flickr.com/groups/1229506@N24/ I would love to see your blocks.



Bye for now.

"Sweet Nostalgia" - October - The Witching Hour

It's that time again, time for the next block in my "Sweet Nostalgia" B.O.M. series. I hope you will have fun with this one. Don't forget, I would love to see photos of your completed blocks.

The link to download or print the file is here. For those of you having trouble with Scribd, I've made the file available on 4Shared here.

Hopefully, after Quilt Market this past weekend, more shops will have discovered the wonderful Cosmo embroidery threads and it won't be so difficult for you to find.

Happy Stitching.

Fall Quilt Festival

Amy of Park City Girl blog is again hosting an on-line quilt festival. Each participant is to post a photo of one of their favorite quilts with a little story about it.

One of my favorite quilts is this one I made about 5 or 6 years ago. I have always loved the look of the 1930's repro prints but I wanted to do something a little different with them. I'd never made anything with a 60 degree diamond template before so I decided to give it a try. I think it turned out pretty well. Of course I had to add some applique to the borders. lol

Why don't you visit Amy's blog and check out all the wonderful quilts being showcased, and even write about one of your own. Just click on the Quilt Festival button on the right-hand side of my blog.
I hope all my fellow Canadian bloggers have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and all my U.S. friends enjoy their Columbus Day.

Bye for now.

The Winners Are...

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to enter my "Sweet Nostalgia" giveaway. Your wonderful comments were very much appreciated. There were so many comments that I haven't had the time to visit you all, but I am going to try. I put all the entries in a large pot( there were a lot of them!) and I asked Mom to pick out the winners.
The grand prize winner is Comment # 115 Betweens.

The runners up are #106 - Carrie P., # 88 - Gran and # 46 - Jenny of Elefantz

Congratulations to the winners. Please email me your snail mail addresses so I can get the parcels off to you.

I'd again like to thank Nireko of the Lecien Corp. for providing these wonderful threads for the giveaway.

Bye for now.

I had a slight mishap a week ago, and have been a little under the weather since. I was walking Daisy (DD's Chocolate Lab) when something must have spooked her and she took off! I landed flat on the sidewalk and ended up with a fractured septum, a loose tooth, bruised and cut face and hands. But I didn't lose Daisy! What a mess! lol You can just imagine my husband's and daughter's reaction when they arrived home from Scotland the next day.

Needless to say I haven't been getting too much done of my stitching or quilting.
But I do have some photos to show you. HazelB of http://hazel-sewcrazy.blogspot.com/and Jennifer of http://stitchanything.blogspot.com/ sent me photos of their completed September blocks.

Don't they look great!

There is one day left before the cutoff for the giveaway so if you haven't entered yet just leave a comment on the September 4th post.

Bye for now.

"Sweet Nostalgia" - September Block.

I think I've kept you waiting long enough, so without any more teasers, here is the first of the "Sweet Nostalgia" blocks. This is the September block titled - "Summer's Gone".

This project will have 12 blocks in total, with one block being released around the 15th of each month until August 15, 2010. If you choose to use the blocks as I have planned, the quilt will measure approx. 53" x 67". The finishing instructions will be provided in August 2010, with the final block. Each block will be available for download for 3 months, i.e. when the December block is released the September block will be removed. I hope you will get as much enjoyment from stitching these blocks as I have.

The Cosmo embroidery threads for this project were generously provided by Nireko, of the Lecien Corporation, http://www.lecien.co.jp/en/hobby/cosmo25/index.html and I encourage you to try them if at all possible.

I have not included instructions for the embroidery stitches, as there are many on-line references available. Two excellent reference sites are Sharon b's Dictionary of Stitches, here http://inaminuteago.com/stitchindex.html and Rissa's Pieces Stitch Dictionary, here http://www.prettyimpressivestuff.com/stitches/index.htm.

Without further ado, the pattern for this month can be found here.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I would love to hear from you and see your progress with the blocks.

The response to my "Sweet Nostalgia" giveaway has been wonderful, so much so that I'm thinking a few more prizes may be in order. Stay tuned. If you haven't entered yet, there's still time, just leave a comment on the previous post.

Bye for now.

For those of you having difficulty downloading the file from Scribd you can download the pattern here

Edited September 21/09 - I've added 3 more prizes to the giveaway for the runners-up, so if you haven't entered yet, there's still time. Just leave a comment on the previous post.