Competition Time

I thought I'd be brave and offer a competition on my blog. I've seen it done on other blogs but I'm not sure if there is a blog comp etiquette - feel free to correct me if I get it wrong.


The prize is novelty charm squares; 20 in all and measuring 3.5 inches/9 cm. You can see the squares on the right of screen (waves towards picture). To win this little prize you need to leave a comment on this blog post. I even have a question for you to answer:

"What's your favourite colour scheme for a quilt/craft project?"

You have until midnight on Sunday 11th October to leave your comment, then the winner will be chosen at random.

Looking forward to your comments. Good luck!

Two Blues

On the cover of the latest Down Under Quilts was a lovely pink and yellow quilt by Erica Spinks called Sunshine on Roses. I thought the pattern would work well with my I Spy scraps. I used two blues as you can see and with some quick strip piecing and lots of prints I put this top together. Everything was from the stash, so it's a free quilt .
I'm putting some borders on it now. I was going to go around the center with light blue and then dark blue because that was easy. Fortunately some other ideas popped into my head before I cut the border and I'm trying something a little different. Photo next posting.

It's Official

I finally got around to registering my business name. Last time I googled "Two Bits Patches" I got 183 hits and they were all mine. Very pleasing, I thought smugly, until I realised that if someone else wanted my name it was free for the taking.

So I went online to register the name. What name would you like, the site asked politely, and make sure the spelling is correct. No worries. Now, list three more possible names if your first choice is not available. Not Available!? It's my name, I don't want something different! I courageously left the Three More Options blank, and clicked Submit.

Two Bits Patches could not be approved online, because one of the words was suspect. Which one?

"Two".

How could the word "two" cause any problems? You don't read "two" and think, terrorist plot, do you? Perhaps the grammar police thought I meant "too" or "to" and I would be responsible for misleading the public with the incorrect homonym. Perhaps two has a secret meaning that I'm unaware of and my blog will now be followed anonymously.

Anyway, the certificate arrived in today's mail, so now Two Bits Patches is legitimate.

Hopefully.

New site ecraftpatterns

For a long time I've admired the products and presentation of Christine Abela's Gecko Gully. Christine is a web designer too so when I wanted to take the plunge last year I got in contact with Christine and she designed Two Bits Patches for me.
Christine has a brand new website which is quite exciting. ecraftpatterns is a site to buy or sell downloadable craft patterns. There are 10 different designers on board with patterns for quilting, embroidery, bags, stitcheries and so on. You chose you pattern, make payment and the pattern downloads straight to your computer.
If you are a craft designer you can add your patterns to the site and Christine handles all the technical side for you.
I've been looking for some patterns for I Spy quilts to add to my website; now I reckon I'll design my own and put them on ecraftpatterns!

A Round of Stash-Busting

My favourite book at the moment is Bonnie Hunter's "Scraps & Shirttails: Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle! The Art of Quilting Green". The book has loads of ideas for making scrap quilts.

Bonnie recommends pre-cutting fabric into useful sizes, so when you need, say, 2.5 inch strips you already have a box full.

My I Spy remnants are overflowing from all corners of my sewing room so I thought I would do some scrap busting. I'm trying out a pattern that uses 4.5 inch and 2.5 inch pieces, so I started cutting those first. I added 2 inch strips as well. Then some pieces were still too nice to cut into strips so I fussy cut 3.5 inch squares as well.

Ideally I would cut useful sizes from the fabric when it was new and not after it had been jammed into tubs six months before. But I am pleased with the morning's work. Now to get my swap blocks finished before tonight's patchwork meeting.

I Spy In the Pinks

This is a new I Spy quilt I've made, In the Pinks. It's a really easy pattern. I used 24 6.5 inch I Spy prints for the centre of the blocks. The border for each block is 2.5 inch strips, 8 fat quarters are enough to do all the blocks. I often quilt with diagonal lines, it's easier to ease the 'crossings' on the bias than on the straight.

Do you use metric or imperial measures? My brain still thinks in inches but I'm happy to work with centimetres too. I was in our local discount fabric shop waiting to be served when a customer asked the staff, how much is a yard? After three different staff members didn't know how to answer, I volunteered the information that if she bought one metre she would have a bit left over. I proceeded to explain the conversion from yards to metric but no one was listening.

Why don't I shop in my local quilting shop? There isn't one in our country town, the closest one is 20 kilometres away.

More Chocolate Hearts

The chocolate hearts quilt is starting to take shape....I wish that posting photos to a blog was as easy as patchwork!

The wedding isn't until April 2010 so I have plenty of time for this quilt. That means I will take my time and probably start half a dozen more projects before this one is finished. Still, that's one of the best things about a hobby - you only have to please yourself.