Surprise

Helen has been quietly working on this octagon beauty by hand for not that long really. The blocks are @ 10" and go together quickly she assures us. A great pattern to highlight large scale prints

Look what arrived today - my spring swap gift from Erica in the US! How sweet is this - a pretty cushion from dresden petals (here they are again) and some fat quarters to go with it. PLUS Erica made the card as well - what a clever girl she is and a lovely swap partner too.

I have never done an internet swap before and this one was a lot of fun - keeping things secret til the end. Other gifts are on Flickr - check them out. Just beautiful.

Want the world to see your quilt? The V and A have a virtual quilt show going in conjunction with their quilt exhibition and you can put yours in it here. I did and there are lots of others - really interesting quilts from all over the world. Thanks to an Aussie Erica for the info.

Entries have closed for our quilt show - over two hundred items! Can you believe it and to think we were worried we wouldn't have enough. Lots of people have volunteered to help over the five days - thanks in advance to you all. Let the fun begin!!

New things

These two pics are the result of a tutorial from Lurline in Perth who had a dresden ruler especially made for her project. I used my little 4" long ruler to create a longer version out of freezer paper and used that as my template. The proper ruler would be so much easier but weren't they fun to make. One is the French General range out at the moment and I used a layer cake with heaps left over. The other is gorgeous scraps of thirties

On a completely different subject it's too late for this Xmas but I found a website selling just the right thing for those men who have everything. It's here and it's the perfect gift! I have two on the way from Canada to put aside for significant male birthdays coming up this year. Check it out. Another interesting gift is here - not just for guys and so reasonably priced. Might have to order a bulk lot. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think. It's so hard to find interesting and unusual gifts.